Intelligent tool for collecting and managing data during manual harvesting of fruits and vegetables
View Patent ↗An apparatus for collecting and managing data during an agricultural manual operation is provided. The agricultural manual operation includes harvesting, planting roots, cutting flowers, and pruning and thinning fruit trees or vegetables. The apparatus comprises: an intelligent tool configured to log an event including an agricultural manual operation when a picker succeeds in picking at least one harvested product by using the intelligent tool, or planting event when a worker succeeds in planting at least one product, or cutting flowers event when a worker succeeds in cutting at least one flower product, or pruning and thinning event when a worker succeeds in thinning fruit trees. The apparatus further comprises a means for collecting a set of data relevant to at least one manually picking event, or manually planting event, or manually cutting event, or manual pruning or thinning event.
1. A method, comprising:
harvesting a product using a pick-up tool of a harvesting tool, wherein the pick-up tool comprises one or more of a clipper, a shear, a powered handheld shaker, a powered handheld combing device, a snapping tool, a stripping tool, a snapping glove, a stripping glove, or a fork;
determining position coordinates of the product using a position sensor of the harvesting tool;
determining a size of the product using a size measuring sensor of the harvesting tool;
determining a quality of the product using a quality sensor of the harvesting tool;
logging an agricultural manual operation to a memory of the harvesting tool;
collecting a set of data relevant to the agricultural manual operation including at least the position coordinates, the size of the product, and the quality of the product;
sending, using a wired or wireless network connection, the set of data to a remote database;
using the set of data to generate a map of a geographic area of harvested products, wherein the map includes information describing a particular size metric of harvested products and a quality metric of harvested products.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular size metric of harvested products corresponds to a size range of harvested products.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the product is selected from the group consisting of: a fruit; a vegetable; a flower, a root crop; and a berry.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a timing of harvesting the product using a timing device of the harvesting tool;
determining, using the timing of harvesting the product, a productivity measure of a laborer associated with harvesting the product, wherein the set of data includes the productivity measure.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein harvesting the product comprises one or more of: placing the product into a basket; stripping the product into a bucket; using a vacuum-operated mechanical picker including a picking tube to pick and deliver the product to a picking moving platform; and leaving the product on the ground for pickup by a laborer.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wired or wireless network connection corresponds to a wireless network connection selected from the group consisting of:
a ZigBee network; a wireless personal area network (WPAN); a wireless optical communication network; a wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB) network; a Bluetooth network; a body area network (BAN); a wireless body area network (WBAN); a body sensor network (BSN); a Z-Wave network; a Wi-Fi network; and a cell phone network.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the quality sensor corresponds to a ripeness sensor and wherein the quality metric corresponds to a ripeness metric.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the position sensor is selected from the group consisting of:
a GNSS sensor; a local navigation system; an inverse GPS positioning system; a pseudolite navigation system; a dead reckoning system; an acceleration sensor; a magnetic sensor; a pedometer; a RFID tag; and a camera including an image analyzer configured to detect and analyze hand movements.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
measuring a shape of the product using a shape measuring sensor of the harvesting tool, wherein the set of data includes the shape of the product, and wherein the map includes information describing a shape metric of harvested products.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein said ripeness the quality sensor is selected from the group consisting of:
an optical sensor; an infrared (IR) sensor; an Ultra Violet ultraviolet (UV) sensor; an artificial olfactory sensor; a bio sensor; and an acoustic sensor.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
measuring a disease state of the product using a bio sensor of the harvesting tool, wherein the set of data includes the disease state of the product, and wherein the map includes information describing a disease metric of harvested products.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the quality of the product includes using the size of the product.
13. A harvesting tool for collecting and managing data during a manual harvesting operation comprising:
a pick-up tool, wherein the pick-up tool comprises one or more of a clipper, a shear, a powered handheld shaker, a powered handheld combing device, a snapping tool, a stripping tool, a snapping glove, a stripping glove, or a fork;
a position sensor for determining a position of a product harvested using the pick-up tool;
a size measuring sensor for determining a size of the product harvested using the pick-up tool;
a quality sensor for determining a quality of the product harvested using the pick-up tool; and
a wired or wireless network transceiver for sending a set of data relevant to an agricultural manual operation, wherein the set of data includes at least position coordinates of the product, the size of the product, and the quality of the product.
14. The harvesting tool of claim 13 , further comprising:
an internal memory; and
a processor in data communication with the internal memory, the position sensor, the size measuring sensor, the quality sensor, and the wired or wireless network transceiver.
15. The harvesting tool of claim 13 , wherein the position sensor is selected from the group consisting of: a GNSS sensor; a local navigation system; an inverse GPS positioning system; a pseudolite navigation system; a dead reckoning system; an acceleration sensor; a magnetic sensor; a pedometer; a camera including an image analyzer configured to detect and analyze hand movements; and a distance sensor configured to sense distance from beacons with RFID, bar code readers, and laser scanners.
16. The harvesting tool of claim 13 , wherein the quality sensor corresponds to one or more of: an optical sensor; an artificial olfactory sensor; a bio sensor; and an acoustic sensor.
17. The harvesting tool of claim 13 , wherein the quality sensor corresponds to a bio sensor is configured to determine a bio-parameter selected from the group consisting of:
carbamate pesticide in fruit and vegetables; citrate in fruits; glucose and sucrose in fruit juices; microbial pathogens in fruit irrigation, and microbial pathogens in vegetable irrigation.
18. The harvesting tool of claim 13 , further comprising:
a timing device for determining a productivity measure of a picker using the harvesting tool.
19. The harvesting tool of claim 13 , wherein the quality sensor corresponds to a ripeness sensor.
20. The harvesting tool of claim 13 , further comprising a processor configured to determine a set of data relevant to a particular harvested field; and generate a map of the particular harvested field, wherein the map includes information describing a particular size metric of harvested products from the particular harvested field and a quality metric of harvested products from the particular harvested field.