ARECANUT HARVESTING MACHINE

INTRODUCTION
Many trees like areca nut tree, and palm trees are so tall that climbing them becomes
risky. Hence harvesting fruits and nuts and maintaining them becomes difficult. So development
of a unique tree climbing and harvesting mechanism is necessary which may be used for
maintaining and harvesting applications. In recent years, labour scarcity has emerged as one of
the foremost challenges in farming. One crop that has been most affected by this is the areca nut.
Areca nut trees attain a height of about 60-70 feet. It is mandatory to climb the trees a minimum
of five times a year for a successful harvest - twice for the preventive spray against fungal
disease, and thrice to harvest the areca nut.

Only skilled labourers can carry out these farming operations. They have to climb the
trees using muscle power. As this involves real hard, physical exertion, younger generations of
labourers are losing interest, with potentially harsh implications for areca nut cultivation. The
while harvest time is typically in summer.

The scope of this project is limited to climb areca nut trees having circumference between
30 and 50 cm. Therefore, maintaining sufficient friction force capable of handling the self-
weight, maintaining the stability of the structure while in motion, reducing the total weight, and
achieving the precise gripping are the important parameters that have to be considered. The
machine should be capable of adjusting to the varying cross-section of the tree during upward
and downward movements. The machine should grab the tree firmly to maintain its positions
during the operation. The geared motor should be powerful enough to carry the payloads and
weight of the machine. The tension maintained by the spring must be good enough to maintain
the gripping force between the wheel and the tree. In this study, considering all the above
parameters, a safe, reliable and efficient climbing and harvesting machine is designed and
fabricated.

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There is a need to invent a device to address efficiency safety and cost effective. The
design of the device has to be simple enough for villagers to operate, yet work efficiently to
appeal to the majority. In present days the climbing methods that are been used by the farmer are
Rope climbing method and Rectangle wooden seat climbing method. Rope climber is
economical and simple in design which consists of rope of length one meter twisted to the shape
of the sandal, the user wears this sandal and climbs the tree manually. In rectangle wooden seat
climber the user hangs the wooden seat on his back and climbs the tree manually, once he
reaches the tree top he ties the wooden seat to the tree and rest on the seat to harvest the arecanut.
Although this two methods are simple and economical. It is not safe and cause physical strain to
the user.
In summary although many device were invented to climb the arecanut tree it was not
economical and user friendly. This project aims to overcome these deficiencies by developing a
smart and compact arecanut harvesting machine. This research is useful for climbing, and cutting
of arecanut for a successful harvest. This project is a mechanized system which would eliminate
the need of manual climbing for harvesting areca nut. This system is so simple that can be
controlled by anyone. This machine is simple and a person with little technical knowledge can be
easily operate the machine. It is very easy to move from one place to another. This is the most
suitable machine for harvesting areca nut tree easily.

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Literature Survey

Mani A, Jothilingam A

They discussed about the development and fabrication of a tree climber and harvester. It
consists of two mechanisms. One for climbing and another for harvesting. They designed an
octagon shaped chassis where wheels at specific intervals were provided. The proposed design
by Mani and Jothilingam had the location of center of mass of the device outside the tree and it
fused both spiral and straight climbs. An arm was provided in order to fulfill the harvesting
requirement. The bunch of nuts is located by a camera which is fixated to the arm. The cutting is
done by a saw after a clear view of the nuts is obtained. The entire mechanism was controlled by
remote control. They discussed about the hardware setup and controlling units were designed.

Rajesh Kannan, Megalingam, R Venumadhav

Analyzed various models of climbing and harvesting devices. Safety, reliability, ease of
use, cleaning the tree tops, spraying pesticides were given prior importance. They designed a
system that can be controlled by anyone. The designed prototype responds to human gestures
with negligible gap in the response time. A prototype of the arm was designed and tested against
human gestures and found successful. Their machine was designed to consume less power, so
longer working hours doesn’t affect the power consumption.

P. Mohankumar, D. Anantha Krishnan and K. Kathirvel

They discussed about the ergonomical parameters and ergo refinements of their design
model. They designed two models and selected one through trial and error testing on basis of
lower physiological cost, safety and discomfort. The inclination of the upper frame of climbing
device is increased with respect to the horizontal, while moving towards the top. This resulted in
unstableness and insecurity of the labor.

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Rahul V, Sebin Babu, Sameer Moideen CP

They used three linear electrical actuators - two for gripping and one for vertical up and
down motion in their climbing device. They analyzed the model and found the design to be safe.
Their climbing mechanism is very similar to a man climbing a tree. They tested their prototype
under real life conditions and suitable changes were incorporated. In their paper, "Semi
Automated Tree Climber", they discussed about the possibilities of modifying this device

Justin Gostanian, Erick Read

Discussed about the design, construction, and testing of a robot to climb trees to detect
Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation. The primary goal was to design and build a robot that could
successfully climb a tree. After researching existing climbing robot designs, a robot prototype
was built using concepts from the existing designs. The prototype was then tested to determine
the effectiveness of the design. The prototype proved to be partially successful, being capable of
gripping a tree and staying on, but could not move. Though not entirely successful, the project
identified many important aspects in a tree climbing robot's design.

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Problem Breakdown

Need for Skilled

Labour

Shortage of Risk and

Manpower Tedious Job

Conventional
Seasonal Job
Method

Late Harvesting
Ageing Of
Arecanuts
Arecanut Lack of time due
Harvesting. to low workforce

Requires more
time to climb
More Time higher heights
consumption
Labour gets
exhausted more
Modern Technology
often hence no
Method
continous work
]

Fig: 1 Problem Breakdown

Conventional method

In harvesting areca nut they fallow a traditional method of climbing trees up to 30-50
meters height from the ground level which makes the job risky. In conventional method leboures
climb manually and pluck the areca nut from trees.

1. Shortage of man power

They have to climb the trees using muscle power. As this involves real hard,
physical exertion, younger generations of labourers are losing interest, with potentially
harsh implications for areca nut cultivation. As it is a seasonal job labour, for this job is
found difficult, and the wages for this operation in high.

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2. Ageing of Areca nut

Loss of the price of areca nut due to late harvesting and many of the nuts gets
spoil and cannot be sold in the market. Lack of time due to low work force.
3. More time consumption
As the trees of areca nut are high the manual climbing takes more time to climb
the higher height so it consumes more height. Labour gets exhausted for climbing one
tree and climbing down often this exhaust the labour and the continuous work is broken
and time consumption of job is more.
Modern Technology
many device were invented to climb the arecanut tree it was not economical and user
friendly. This project aims to overcome these deficiencies by developing a smart and compact
arecanut harvesting machine. This research is useful for climbing, and cutting of arecanut for a
successful harvest. This project is a mechanized system which would eliminate the need of
manual climbing for harvesting areca nut.

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Route Cause Analysis

Fig: 2 Route cause analysis

Route cause are analyzed by fish bone diagram which takes in to picture of 4M’s
 First route cause is tedious job and seasonal and the main reason for this is MAN
 Second route cause is manual harvesting this is due to the long run traditional method
followed from ages.
 The third route cause is conventional this is because of the material handling that is areca
nuts
 Another M which is being focused for the project is design and fabrication of machine
which can over come all the above route causes

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Project schedule

Fig:3 project schedule

Status Description
100% completed

75% completed

25% completed

0% completed; yet to be complete

Activity is completed

Activity is not completed

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Methodology
• Requirements
• Design
• Fabrication
• Testing
• Improvement/Standardization
• Implementation
Requirements
Requirements based on fulfilling the shortage of the need:

 unavailability of arecanut tree climbers.

 High wages.
 Risky job.
 No good machines in the market to fulfil this need .

Design
The conventional methods include an experienced climber climbing the areca tree. This
takes about 2-3 minutes alone just to climb the tree. Based on the Requirements a portable
Design is made which is economical to formers and reduces the time in the process of areca nut
harvesting.

Fabrication
The fabrication process is carried out after the completion of the design stage. Fabrication
involves the process like welding, grinding and other operation.

Improvement/Standardization
Improving the design if required based on the requirements after or before fabrication
which reduces the fabrication cost, And standardizing the design for the future purpose.

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Implementing
Implementing the changes if made, and finalizing the design and fabrication of the
project.
Objectives

In an attempt to assist the climbers, to avoid wastage an arecanut tree climbing robot has
been designed to meets the following objectives.
• To design and develop the PORTABLE,EFFICIENT areca nut harvesting machine.
• To make the harvesting work more EASIER
• To make the work less RISKY and AVOID ACCIDENTS
• Using required attachments to AVOID DAMAGE OF NUTS
• Using IC ENGINE To avoid stoppage of work due to power cuts
Fabricating the device
 That climbs the tree at faster rate.
 That has required friction and doesn’t slip.
 that avoids damaging the tree.
 That is economical and affordable by all class of farmer.
 That is durable and stable.
 That can be controlled from the ground.
 That is ease of access and cost effective

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Model design

Fig: 4 Top view of the design of arecanut harvesting machine

Fig: 5 Isometric view of the design of areca nut harvesting machine

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 ARECANUT HARVESTING MACHINE

Fig: 6 side view of the design of areca nut harvesting machine

Fig: 7 Front view of the design of areca nut harvesting machine

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Working Principle
The machine is fixed to the tree base. Three wheel based system having two dummy
wheels and one power wheel which is powered by four stroke petrol engine. Top dummy wheel
rod is fixed and bottom dummy wheel rod is attached with spring which contracts according to
the diameter of the tree. Once the engine is powered by the accelerator the machine moves
vertically to the top and blade attached at the top of the machine hits the base of areca nut bunch
which falls on the V shaped hook attached to the blade rod. Once bunch falls on the hook
machine is decelerated to get the bunch and the machine safely to the ground. Similarly the
process is carried out to all the other trees.

Component Specification
Engine-
• Engine type: 4-stroke,Overhead CAM , Single cylinder
• Engine model: GX35T
• Engine power: 1.19kW
• Displacement: 35.8cc
• Fuel used: Petrol
• Fuel Tank Capacity:630ml
• Fuel Oil Air ratio: 8:1
• Maximum Horse power:1.59HP
• Weight:4.12kg

Wheels
• Material type: Synthetic rubber
• Wheel Diameter: 10cm
• Power wheel length: 6cm
• Dummy wheel length: 10cm

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Metal Links-
• Material type: Stainless steel

Other Components-
• Tension Spring, Cutter Blade, Accelerator cable

Cost estimation
Serial no Particulars Estimated Cost(in Rs)
1 4-stroke Petrol Engine 6340
2 Wheels 2000
3 Links 1000
4 fabrication 2000
Total 11340

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