Cellulase, polygalacturonase (PG), pectinmethylesterase (PME), respiration, and ethylene production were determined in single "Fuerte" avocado fruits from the day of harvest through the start of fruit breakdown. PME declined from its maximum value at the time of picking to a low level early in the climacteric. PG activity was not detectable in the preclimacteric stage, increased during the clim...

For manipulators to be an effective option in soft automation, they require redundancy and versatility. A typical application is motion in unpredictable surroundings such as foliage navigation in automated fruit picking. To date, centralized control architectures with real-time constraints have proven undesirable for the control of redundant systems. This paper uses a modular decentralized tech...

Avocado quality control is dealt with as a total process, commencing with an understanding of the physiological attributes of the fruit itself, including respiration, ethylene production, transpiration and the effects of step-down temperatures and time on quality. Orchard factors that may affect fruit quality are discussed briefly. These include factors such as irrigation, nutrition, mulching, ...

The effects of crystal (transparent) and black nets on the protection of fruits from hail, the interception of light, temperature, humidity and fruit quality were evaluated over four seasons (from 2000 to 2003) at the IRTA-Experimental Station, Lleida (NE-Spain) on ‘Mondial Gala’ apples (Malus x domestica Borkh.). Nets demonstrated their effi ciency for fruit protection against hail; decreased ...

This paper describes the concept of an autonomous robot for harvesting cucumbers in greenhouses. A description is given of the working environment of the robot and the logistics of harvesting. It is stated that for a 2 ha Dutch nursery, 4 harvesting robots and one docking station are needed during the peak season. Based on these preliminaries, the design specifications of the harvest robot are ...

Abstract At present, the artificial fruit picking cost is high, damage rate and efficiency low, so greenhouse robot emerges as times’ demand. Therefore, this paper designs a kind of chassis system robots. This mainly designed simulates mechanical system, electrical basic motion control algorithm from three aspects. Finally, prototype in completed debugged, which proves that it has characteristi...