Renewably Powered Ergonomic Fruit Picker and Transporter

Cloverleaf Farm, Davis, CA, USA

ID: TCR8

Relevant Skills: mechanical design, argriculture, vehicle design

We are an organic fruit farm in Davis and are in need of renewably powered, ergonomic way to pick and transport fruit out of our orchard. We currently spend a lot of time during harvest picking fruit on ladders and then repacking it into boxes. We also drive a pick-up through the orchard to collect the boxes, which compacts the ground near the trees and uses gasoline. We envision a bike-powered harvest cart that would be able to traverse uneven ground, racks that could hold up to 400 lbs in fruit at a time, and be able to transport fruit without bruising it, perhaps using suspension. Ergonomically designed holders for the picking trays would allow us to easily slide the trays into the harvest cart racks. We would hope to have the following outcomes: a reduction in labor costs, fuel usage, and soil compaction.