Design and Implementation of a Device to Aid Pepper Harvesting in Agriculture

Abstract

Agriculture is the backbone of India and it is the second largest producer of Pepper in the world. Pepper is known as the “King of Spices”. Traditionally, Pepper which is located at a height of 20ft to 30ft, is harvested manually by the aid of a bamboo ladder. Improvisations done to make the ladder more efficient have failed practically and could not solve the farmer’s problems. The driving force behind this work is to eliminate the tedious and risk bearing task of plucking pepper seeds in the clusters of pepper at such heights without any protection. In this regard, a static automated device is designed that would detect the pepper, cut the Pepper and collect it simultaneously. The Device goes to that height by means of a Telescopic stick. The device would detect the Pepper that is ready for harvesting by a Camera through Image Processing. It would then adjust the Horizontal position for the scissor to place itself. It would then cut the Pepper. The Pepper seeds from the cluster are drawn to the sac through the funnel. This funnel is attached to the Telescopic stick that bears the Mainframe.  The device would start operation when the switch at the bottom of the telescopic stick is turned on and the same switch is used to off the device. This device would provide a solution to the pepper harvesting method and improvise the production of pepper by reducing the time to harvest them and most importantly, by avoiding the risk bearing tasks that the farmers go through during the harvesting of pepper at such altitudes.