Fruit Tree Pruning Research Articles

A Multiple Criteria Decision-Making Method Generated by the Space Colonization Algorithm for Automated Pruning Strategies of Trees

The rise of mechanical automation in orchards has sparked research interest in developing robots capable of autonomous tree pruning operations. To achieve accurate pruning outcomes, these robots require robust perception systems that can reconstruct three-dimensional tree characteristics and execute appropriate pruning strategies. Three-dimensional modeling plays a crucial role in enabling accurate pruning outcomes. This paper introduces a specialized tree modeling approach using the space colonization algorithm (SCA) tailored for pruning. The proposed method extends SCA to operate in three-dimensional space, generating comprehensive cherry tree models. The resulting models are exported as normalized point cloud data, serving as the input dataset. Multiple criteria decision analysis is utilized to guide pruning decisions, incorporating various factors such as tree species, tree life cycle stages, and pruning strategies during real-world implementation. The pruning task is transformed into a point cloud neural network segmentation task, identifying the trunks and branches to be pruned. This approach reduces the data acquisition time and labor costs during development. Meanwhile, pruning training in a virtual environment is an application of digital twin technology, which makes it possible to combine the meta-universe with the automated pruning of fruit trees. Experimental results demonstrate superior performance compared to other pruning systems. The overall accuracy is 85%, with mean accuracy and mean Intersection over Union (IoU) values of 0.83 and 0.75. Trunks and branches are successfully segmented with class accuracies of 0.89 and 0.81, respectively, and Intersection over Union (IoU) metrics of 0.79 and 0.72. Compared to using the open-source synthetic tree dataset, this dataset yields 80% of the overall accuracy under the same conditions, which is an improvement of 6%.

An image-based system for locating pruning points in apple trees using instance segmentation and RGB-D images

Intelligent pruning is an effective way to improve the efficiency of fruit tree pruning and reduce production costs, where the positioning of fruit tree pruning points is the key. In this study, a pruning point localisation method based on deep learning and red-green-blue-depth (RGB-D) is proposed for dormant tall spindle apple trees, which can quickly and accurately identify the pruning points on the primary branches. Firstly, red-green-blue (RGB) images and depth images of apple trees were acquired by using the Realsense D435i depth camera, and the SOLOv2 instance segmentation model was used to segment the trunks, branches, and supports in RGB images. Secondly, the manual pruning rules were adapted to improve the pruning methods; then using OpenCV image processing method, the junction points of branches and trunk and potential pruning points were gained, and the world coordinates of the points were obtained according to the coordinate transformation to calculate the length of branch diameter and spacing. Finally, the pruning points were determined according to the pruning rules. The results show that SOLOv2 has better segmentation effect compared with Mask R–CNN and Cascade Mask R–CNN. The mean absolute error between the estimated and manually measured values of branch diameter and spacing are 1.10 mm and 16.06 mm, and the recognition accuracy of pruning points is 87.2%, with a recognition time of about 3.8 s for each image. It is shown that the method can measure branch diameter and spacing and quickly locate pruning points with high reliability and accuracy, and the study provides a basis for the development of apple tree pruning robots.

Development of an automatic control system for a hydraulic pruning robot

Automatic pruning is capable of trimming trees into complex shapes efficiently and continuously. However, this technology faces more challenges under unstructured agricultural environments. In the present paper, we describe the development of a hydraulic disc-saw mounted pruning robot with a relatively low cost for automated geometric pruning of fruit trees based on a new automatic pruning scenario. A pruning control strategy based on rolling observations and continuous prediction algorithm was designed to precisely control the motion of hydraulic cylinders. A forward kinematic model was described using modified Denavit–Hartenberg (D-H) notation, and the accessible workspace for the end-effector was analyzed in the simulation. The inverse kinematics model based on geometry was established, which provided the foundation for the development of a control system together with the forward kinematics model. Performance tests showed a sufficient control accuracy within ± 1.8° of all cylinders. The results of the waypoint tracking tests suggest that an increase in the step-size from 20 mm to 60 mm not only increases the moving speed and improves tracking accuracy, but also increases the fluctuation of the end-effector in the Z-axis direction. The movement of the chassis can introduce new errors and results in a larger average absolute positional error along the X-axis. The average startup and stop lag of the control system was 0.55 s and 0.15 s, respectively. This study provides guidance for pruning robot path planning and lays the foundation for future iterations of autonomous pruning robots.

Apple tree productivity depending on planting density and rootstock variety combinations

In this article has been studied the dependence of tree planting density, variety-rootstock combinations and water- and resource-saving technologies in providing the population of our country with fresh fruits and obtaining a constant plentiful and high-quality harvest. Fruit growing is one of the most important and unique areas of agriculture. The growth, development and productivity of young orchards from seed fruits depend on the planting density of seedlings, the combination of rootstock varieties, the use of water-resource-saving innovative technologies, and agrotechnological factors. In this area, a sharp increase in fruit production, a radical improvement in quality and a reduction in cost are mainly determined by the laying of new intensive orchards and the consistently plentiful and high-quality fruits of existing orchards, including apple tree care and the use of resource-saving technologies. At present, the total area of orchards in the Republic of Uzbekistan is 216,400 ha, of which 89,100 ha or 44.0% of the total area is occupied by seed fruits. On a scientific basis, such activities as the correct formation and pruning of fruit trees, biological characteristics, intensive varieties and planting density of seedlings, modern water-resource-saving agro-care technologies used in the laying of accelerated young fruit orchards in Uzbekistan are studied in detail.

Avocado Tree Pruning Pellets (Persea americana Mill.) for Energy Purposes: Characterization and Quality Evaluation

The energy use of fruit tree pruning represents a current alternative to achieving an energy transition toward clean biomass resources, which can substitute for fossil fuels and mitigate polluting emissions. In Mexico, avocado is one of the most important fruit crops, with approximately 260,000 ha planted. The pruning of avocado trees generates large amounts of biomass that are not fully exploited, lacking studies that analyze in depth the energy potential of pruning. This study aims to determine the potential energy use of avocado pruning as densified solid biofuels. The physical, chemical and energetic properties of two pruning fractions defined as class B (branches) and class BAL (branches and leaves) were determined. From class B, pellets were made, and their physical and mechanical properties were determined. Subsequently, the evaluated parameters of the pellets obtained were compared to European quality regulations to determine their quality and identify their potential uses. The characterization of avocado pruning indicates that class B generally has better physicochemical characteristics than class BAL to be used as solid biofuel. It was found that class B has a high calorific value (19.61 MJ/kg) and low ash content (1.2%), while class BAL contains a high amount of ash (7.2%) and high levels of N (1.98%) and S (1.88%). The manufactured pellets met most of the quality requirements for immediate use in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors at the regional level.

Effects of source-sink alteration by pruning on physiological parameters and fruit production of Rosa roxburghii Tratt. on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in China

The formation of economic yield and fruit quality of Roxburgh rose (Rosa roxburghii Tratt.) depends essentially on its source-sink interaction. Thus, a pruning experiment was conducted to assess the effects of source-sink regulation on photosynthetic physiology and fruit yield of Roxburgh rose, which was of great significance to production. Cutting off vegetative branches reduced physiological fruit loss and malformed fruits but increased single fruit quality and yield. Results revealed that the stomatal characteristics, the composition of mesophyll tissue, and photosynthesis of leaves on reproductive branches were significantly affected by the ratio of the vegetative and reproductive shoots. Our data indicated that the source-sink ratio could reflect the balance between vegetative growth and reproductive growth of the tree during the whole fruit period. Fruit tree pruning had guiding significance for improving the fruit yield of Roxburgh rose.

Technical and Field Evaluation of Tractor Operated Frontal Pre-pruner for Kinnow Mandarin (Citrus reticulata) and Guava (Myrtaceae) Orchard

Fruit tree pruning is the cutting and removing of selected parts of a fruit tree. It spans through quite a number of horticultural techniques. Pruning includes cutting branches back, sometimes removing smaller limbs entirely and more so the removal of young shoots, buds and leaves. Established orchard practice of both organic and nonorganic types typically includes pruning. Pruning can control growth, remove dead or diseased wood, and stimulate the formation of flowers and fruit buds. Pruning and training young trees improves their later productivity and longevity and can also prevent later injury from weak crotches or forks (where a tree trunk splits into two or more branches) that break from the weight of fruit, snow, or ice on the branches. However, the efficiency of pruning methods is also important. Manual pruning has constraints like lower field Capacity and incomplete pruning in case of tall trees. Therefore, a tractor operated 1-row frontal pre-pruner with electro hydraulic control was tested for Kinnow Mandarin and Guava orchards. The time involved for top and side pruning was 23.30 and 46.80 min/acre, respectively and there was 99.32-99.38% saving in time as compared to manual pruning.

Management of Residues from Fruit Tree Pruning: A Trade-Off between Soil Quality and Energy Use

In the EU, bioenergy is by far the most significant renewable energy source and more than two thirds of biomass utilized for energy conversion consists of forestry and agricultural residues, such as fruit tree pruning. Although still underutilized, biomass from pruning is a relevant energy feedstock that does not generate additional demand for land, nor negative impact on the environment and biodiversity. On the other hand, previously shredded pruning left in the field may sustain agricultural processes and help provide beneficial ecological services. In the latter case, the most relevant result is the increase in soil organic carbon, an essential factor for improving soil quality and promoting climate regulation. As a result, a “dilemma” arises for farmers over two conflicting pruning management options: “pruning to energy” vs. “pruning to soil”, respectively. The present study, performed in the frame of the Horizon 2020 project “uP_running”, is offering a straightforward evaluation tool to assess weather biomass resulting from fruit tree pruning could be removed from the field and used as energy feedstock without compromising both soil quality and the provision of important ecosystem services.

Semantic segmentation for partially occluded apple trees based on deep learning

Fruit tree pruning and fruit thinning require a powerful vision system that can provide high resolution segmentation of the fruit trees and their branches. Recent works only consider the dormant season where there are minimal occlusions on the branches or fit a polynomial curve to reconstruct branch shape, losing information about branch thickness. In this work, we apply two state-of-the-art supervised learning models: U-Net and DeepLabv3, and a conditional Generative Adversarial Network Pix2Pix (with and without the discriminator) to segment partially occluded 2D-open-V apple trees. Binary accuracy, Mean IoU, Boundary F1 score and Occluded branch recall are used to evaluate the performances of the models. DeepLabv3 outperforms the other models in Binary accuracy, Mean IoU and Boundary F1 score, but is surpassed by Pix2Pix (without discriminator) and U-Net in Occluded branch recall. We define two difficulty indices to quantify the difficulty of the task: (1) Occlusion Difficulty Index and (2) Depth Difficulty Index. The worst 10 images are analyzed in both difficulty indices by means of Branch Recall and Occluded Branch Recall. U-Net outperforms the other two models in the current metrics. On the other hand, Pix2Pix (without discriminator) provides more information on branch paths, which is not reflected by the metrics. This highlights the need for more specific metrics on recovering occluded information. Future work is required to further enhance the models to recover more information from occlusions such that this technology can be applied to automating agricultural tasks in a commercial environment.

Tehničko i eksploataciono ispitivanje traktorskih frontalnih mašina za orezivanje u voćnjaku mandarina (Citrus reticulata) i guava (Myrtaceae)

Fruit tree pruning is the cutting and removing of selected parts of a fruit tree. It spans through quite a number of horticultural techniques. Pruning includes cutting branches back, sometimes removing smaller limbs entirely and more so the removal of young shoots, buds and leaves. Established orchard practice of both organic and nonorganic types typically includes pruning. Pruning can control growth, remove dead or diseased wood, and stimulate the formation of flowers and fruit buds. Pruning and training young trees improves their later productivity and longevity and can also prevent later injury from weak crotches or forks (where a tree trunk splits into two or more branches) that break from the weight of fruit, snow, or ice on the branches. However, the efficiency of pruning methods is also important. Manual pruning has constraints like lower field Capacity and incomplete pruning in case of tall trees. Therefore, a tractor operated 1-row frontal pre pruner with electro hydraulic control was tested for Kinnow Mandarin and Guava orchards. The time involved for top and side pruning was 23.30 and 46.80 min/acre, respectively and there was 99.32 - 99.38 % saving in time as compared to manual pruning.

MECHANIZATION OF CROWN PRUNING OF FRUIT TREES

The descriptions and technical characteristics of specialized technical means intended for cutting the crown of trees in orchards, developed by the Federal Research Horticultural Center, are given. One of the most important parts of a fruit plantation care system is the tree pruning. This is one of the most important operations for orchard care, which regulates the growth and fruiting trees. Pruning takes 12–15 % of the total labor costs for maintenance work. In order to increase productivity, quality and facilitate labor on pruning perennial plantations, the Federal Research Horticultural Center has designed an ASV-8 unit for the care of orchards, vineyards and berry fields, for ornamental plantings (using pneumatic pruners), for mechanization of the processes of detailed pruning and removal of overgrowth in orchards. The use of ASV-8 increases labor productivity in pruning trees by 2.8 times with an annual saving of labor costs of 3682 man-hours and a decrease in reduced costs by 33.3 %. The Federal Research Horticultural Center has designed a block-modular unit for the cultivation of orchards AMS-7, intended for use in agricultural production and can perform the following technological operations: contour pruning of fruit trees in traditional and intensive orchards; shaking off fruits from trees; making holes for trellis posts, fence supports, stakes, etc.; loading and unloading and transportation of containers with fruits, vegetables and root crops, cut branches, pallets, bulk materials and other various cargoes. The unit complete with a contour cutter consists of the following assembly units: a lifting device, which is the basis for hinging all types of equipment: a cutting device for contour pruning of the crown of fruit trees, consisting of two cutting bars for heavy pruning, a front frame with two sliders and a hydraulic system. The introduction of the AMS-7 unit into production will ensure an increase in labor productivity up to 1.8 times, a decrease in direct operating costs up to 40 % and labor costs up to 45 %.

Study on Anti-Friction Mechanism of Canna-Leaf Biomimetic Micro-Textured Fruit Tree

Fruit tree pruning is an important part of orchard management. In this paper, the force on and the wear of the pruner in the pruning process were studied with a canna-leaf biomimetic convex-hull pruner. The pruner was formed by laser etching technology. The influence of laser power and scanning speed on the geometric dimensioning of the micro texture was analyzed. The shear force calculation model was built to obtain the positive pressure load during the pruning process, while the model accuracy was verified in the static pressure shear test, and the wear mechanism was analyzed in the wear test. The real pruning process was simulated to compare the worn areas of the textured and non-textured pruners and the number of cuts in fixed wear condition, for proving the wear reduction characteristics of the micro-textured pruner. The results show that: the optimal forming parameters are 70 W 1.6 mm/s (10 mm-diameter branches), 80 W 2.4 mm/s (15 mm-diameter branches) and 80 W 1.6 mm/s (20 mm-diameter branches), and the convex hull spacing is 300 μm. Laser power affects the depth and width of the texture, while scanning speed affects the depth of the texture. The positive pressure on the pruner is proportional to the modulus of elasticity, moment of inertia, cut depth, and bevel angle, whilst it is inversely proportional to the distance from the fixed point of the blade to the positive pressure. The wear test shows that the anti-wear performance of the textured pruner is not obvious at the load of 300 g, while the anti-wear performance of the textured pruner is significant at the loads of 1000 g and 2000 g. The wear mechanism shifts from the abrasive wear in the early stage to more complex oxidative wear and adhesive wear. The actual shear test shows that the textured pruner wears less than the non-textured pruner and enters the stable shear faster.

Apple Tree Branch Information Extraction from Terrestrial Laser Scanning and Backpack-LiDAR

The branches of fruit trees provide support for the growth of leaves, buds, flowers, fruits, and other organs. The number and length of branches guarantee the normal growth, flowering, and fruiting of fruit trees and are thus important indicators of tree growth and yield. However, due to their low height and the high number of branches, the precise management of fruit trees lacks a theoretical basis and data support. In this paper, we introduce a method for extracting topological and structural information on fruit tree branches based on LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) point clouds and proved its feasibility for the study of fruit tree branches. The results show that based on Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), the relative errors of branch length and number are 7.43% and 12% for first-order branches, and 16.75% and 9.67% for second-order branches. The accuracy of total branch information can reach 15.34% and 2.89%. We also evaluated the potential of backpack-LiDAR by comparing field measurements and quantitative structural models (QSMs) evaluations of 10 sample trees. This comparison shows that in addition to the first-order branch information, the information about other orders of branches is underestimated to varying degrees. The root means square error (RMSE) of the length and number of the first-order branches were 3.91 and 1.30 m, and the relative root means square error (NRMSE) was 14.62% and 11.96%, respectively. Our work represents the first automated classification of fruit tree branches, which can be used in support of precise fruit tree pruning, quantitative forecast of yield, evaluation of fruit tree growth, and the modern management of orchards.

Evaluation of mango, longan and lychee trees pruning leaves for the production of biogas via anaerobic fermentation

Pruning fruit trees is improving their full health and harvest. Fruit tree pruning leaves waste to represent an abundant amount of organic materials, and these produced during a short period. The basic fuel properties of lignocellulosic biomass from orchards were evaluated on the following fruit tree leaves obtained from pruning operations. Biomass has become a vital source of renewable energy. Biogas is one the renewable energy which can be produced by anaerobic fermentation of biomass. In this study, mango, longan and lychee trees pruning leaves waste was utilized for biogas production. These leaves were examined on proximate analysis and ultimate analysis contents are considered as carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S). In this study, pretreatment was performed using a sodium hydroxide solution (w/v) at different concentrations as above (1, 2, 3, and 4%). For the best feedstock screening, the theoretical biochemical methane potential was confirmed. Mango leaves biomethane content was higher compared to longan and lychee leaves. Finally, this biomass was suggested further large-scale studies. Digestate from biogas system is a highly valuable nutrient and rich fertilizer.

Research on a method of fruit tree pruning based on BP neural network

The mainstream pruning robots do not have the ability to make decisions independently. The pruning schemes are all artificially generated by experts according to the collected images. In order to improve the intelligence of pruning robot and reduce the labor cost of pruning work, it is necessary to study the robot pruning decision algorithm corresponding to different fruit tree varieties.In this paper, taking apples in the early fruit period as an example, referring to the technical principle of traditional fruit tree pruning and aiming at two types of interference in the pruning process, the back branches and interfering branches, a pruning decision algorithm based on BP neural network was proposed. The algorithm formed the training set by artificially collecting the accurate data of the spatial characteristics of the fruit tree branches and performed calibration for pruning type, and the neural network model was trained according to the calibrated data set. The model trained in the first stage showed the situation that the competition branches cannot be identified. Based on this, an improved algorithm was proposed to improve the classification performance of the competition branches. The experimental results verified that the F1 score of the method for the back branches was 0913; the F1 score for the centripetal branches was 0.867; the improved algorithm has an F1score of 0.755 for the competition branches; the overall conformed to the expectation, which could provide algorithm support for the pruning robot to make artificial intelligence decision.

Studies on Parameter Extraction and Pruning of Tall-spindle Apple Trees Based on 2D Laser Scanner

With the increasing planting area of tall-spindle apple trees, manual tree pruning has become a labor-intensive and costly part of orchard production. Thus, it is meaningful to develop mechanical pruning. In this study, the parameter extraction of tall-spindle fruit trees based on the modern laser scanning technology was carried out and two methods of tree pruning (overall tree pruning and main branch pruning) were proposed. The pruning results showed that the relative error of the DBH, tree height, and crown width were 9.27 %, 4.35 %, and 7.44 % respectively, and the RMSE were 8.78 mm, 143 mm, 116 mm respectively. In addition, the fruit tree pruning level based on the two pruning methods were quantified by tree height, crown width, branch length and space. This research was expected to provide technical support for mechanical fruit tree pruning.

Tilting stability analysis and experiment of the 3-DOF lifting platform for hilly orchards

An orchard-lifting platform is a type of mechanical equipment to assist growers in fruit picking, fruit tree pruning, flower thinning, and other operations. In its operational processes, the tilting stability directly affects the operational safety and adaptability under complex terrain conditions, while critical tilting angle is an important criterion to evaluate the tilting stability. Based on the structure and the operating characteristics of the three degree of freedom (3-DOF ) lifting platform for hilly orchards, the tilting stability was analyzed in different parked states, and the theoretical expressions of critical tilting angle were obtained; in the theoretical expressions, the influencing factors on tilting stability were determined as the parked position β1, the manned worktable rotary position β2, the lifting height h, and the load m. Based on the multi-body dynamics principle, the tilting stability simulation was carried out. The relative error of tilting angles was approximately 4.6% between simulation and tilting verification experiment, which indicated that the results of tilting stability simulation were reliable. Therefore, the multi-body dynamics simulation was used for further clarifying the influencing factors on tilting stability. A virtual orthogonal test was designed, and the results showed that critical tilting angle ranged from 20° to 44° when the factors were at different values, which indicated that the 3-DOF lifting platform for hilly orchards had a high tilting stability performance and could adapt to the operating conditions of hills with slope angles from 5° to 20°. The results of the range analysis and ANOVA showed that the influence intensity of factors on tilting stability was β1 > h > m > β2; at the same time, β1, h, and m exerted significant effect on tilting stability. The tilting stability first decreased and then either increased or decreased with the increasing lifting height; it gradually decreased with the increasing load. It also showed that the position of the manned worktable along the slope down always had the lowest tilting stability. This research can provide a theoretical basis and reference for the analysis of tilting stability of the lifting machinery for hilly orchards. Keywords: orchard-lifting platform, hills areas, tiling stability, influencing factors, analysis and experiment DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181106.3523 Citation: Duan Z H, Qiu W, Ding W M, Liu Y D, Ouyang Y P, et al. Tilting stability analysis and experiment of the 3-DOF lifting platform for hilly orchards. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(6): 73–80.

Lung cancer risk and occupational exposures in crop farming: results from the AGRIculture and CANcer (AGRICAN) cohort

ObjectivesFarmers are considered at lower risk of lung cancer. However, specific tasks can expose them to hazardous air contaminants such as pesticides, diesel exhaust and mineral dust. This study aimed...

Effect of rejuvenation pruning on the growth, productivity and disease incidence in declining trees of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) cv. Kandhari Kabuli

Pruning of fruit trees is an important aspect for the improvement of fruit quality and to minimize the pests and disease attack. Pruning was performed in the month of December in seven year old unpruned trees of Punica granatum cv. Knadhdri Kabuli having many interfering branching and a heavy infestation of bacterial blight orchard. The pruning treatments viz., T1: Retention of 15cm fruiting shoot length, T2: Retention of 30cm fruiting shoot length, T3: Retention of 45cm fruiting shoot length, T4: Retention of 60cm fruiting shoot length and T5: control (No heading back and no thinning) plant. The results of the present investigation revealed that among different pruning treatment, the best results in terms of shoot extension (56.34 cm), fruit size (Diameter 9.66 cm and Length 9.65 cm, fruit weight (278.50 g), marketable yield (10.25 kg) and fruit qualities were in fruits from T1 and T2 where retention of 15cm fruiting shoot length respectively and retention of 30cm fruiting shoot length were maintained. However, maximum fruit set (54.73%) was recorded in control, and it decreased with increasing pruning intensity. The pruning treatments also proved beneficial in controlling bacterial blight on fruit (12.86%) and leaf surface (26.60%) to some extent.

Tilting stability analysis and experiment of the 3-DOF lifting platform for hilly orchards

An orchard-lifting platform is a type of mechanical equipment to assist growers in fruit picking, fruit tree pruning, flower thinning, and other operations. In its operational processes, the tilting stability directly affects the operational safety and adaptability under complex terrain conditions, while critical tilting angle is an important criterion to evaluate the tilting stability. Based on the structure and the operating characteristics of the three degree of freedom (3-DOF ) lifting platform for hilly orchards, the tilting stability was analyzed in different parked states, and the theoretical expressions of critical tilting angle were obtained; in the theoretical expressions, the influencing factors on tilting stability were determined as the parked position β1, the manned worktable rotary position β2, the lifting height h, and the load m. Based on the multi-body dynamics principle, the tilting stability simulation was carried out. The relative error of tilting angles was approximately 4.6% between simulation and tilting verification experiment, which indicated that the results of tilting stability simulation were reliable. Therefore, the multi-body dynamics simulation was used for further clarifying the influencing factors on tilting stability. A virtual orthogonal test was designed, and the results showed that critical tilting angle ranged from 20° to 44° when the factors were at different values, which indicated that the 3-DOF lifting platform for hilly orchards had a high tilting stability performance and could adapt to the operating conditions of hills with slope angles from 5° to 20°. The results of the range analysis and ANOVA showed that the influence intensity of factors on tilting stability was β1 > h > m > β2; at the same time, β1, h, and m exerted significant effect on tilting stability. The tilting stability first decreased and then either increased or decreased with the increasing lifting height; it gradually decreased with the increasing load. It also showed that the position of the manned worktable along the slope down always had the lowest tilting stability. This research can provide a theoretical basis and reference for the analysis of tilting stability of the lifting machinery for hilly orchards. Keywords: orchard-lifting platform, hills areas, tiling stability, influencing factors, analysis and experiment DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181106.3523 Citation: Duan Z H, Qiu W, Ding W M, Liu Y D, Ouyang Y P, et al. Tilting stability analysis and experiment of the 3-DOF lifting platform for hilly orchards. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(6): 73–80.