The quantum dynamics of transport networks in the presence of noisy environments has recently received renewed attention with the discovery of long-lived coherences in different photosynthetic complexes. This experimental evidence has raised two fundamental questions: firstly, what are the mechanisms supporting long-lived coherences; and, secondly, how can we assess the possible functional role...

the aim of this study was to determine the most suitable shaking frequency and amplitude for shake harvesting lime fruit (c. aurantifolia). a tractor mounted limb shaker with adjustable shaking frequency and amplitude, powered by the tractor power-take-off shaft was designed and developed for this study. the rotating input power was transmitted to the shaker flywheel through a multiple sheave v...

Robotic harvesting of crops has the potential to disrupt current agricultural practices. A key element to enabling robotic harvesting is to safely remove the crop from the plant which often involves locating and cutting the peduncle, the part of the crop that attaches it to the main stem of the plant. In this paper we present a comparative study of two methods for performing peduncle detection....

Nacrtak The importance of forest wood chips as fuel for energy production will increase relative to sawmill by-products. The additional production is not a question of potential (harvesting residues, wood from thinning, coppice stands and short rotation forests) but more so a question of economic feasibility. The analyses of different chip production systems resulted in the identification of tw...

In Mediterranean countries, olive tree pruning residue represents an abundant source of energy biomass, still largely unexploited for lack of cost-effective harvesting technology. The authors tested two industrial pruning harvesters, capable of overcoming the limits of lighter units appeared in the past years. One of the machines was designed for application to a powerful farm tractor, whereas ...

The purpose of this research is to facilitate the mechanical harvesting of apricots (Prunus armeniaca L.) for industry. A tractor-trailed harvester was built to catch the fruits detached from apricot (cv. Búlida) trees by vibratory systems. This machine is a low profile catcher that can move under the trees in high-density canopies where umbrella-type harvesters cannot. The trailer is able to w...

The aim of this study was the identification of accident scenarios and causes by analysing existing accident reports of recognized agricultural occupational accidents with tractors, self-propelled harvesting machinery and materials handling machinery from 2008 to 2010. As a result of a literature-based evaluation of past accident analyses, the narrative text analysis was chosen as an appropriat...

The target of this research project was a feasibility study for the development of a robot for automatic or semi-automatic artichoke harvesting. During this project, different solutions for the mechanical parts of the machine, its control system and the harvesting tools were investigated. Moreover, in cooperation with the department DISPA of University of Catania, different field structures wit...