Dynamic behavior of coffee tree branches during mechanical harvest

Abstract

The coffee industry stands out worldwide due to its socioeconomic importance, acting directly or indirectly in the most diverse sectors. With this, new technologies and several harvester models have emerged. These harvesters have regulations that can influence the efficiency of harvesting, the selectivity of fruits and the preservation of the crop. In this way, the understanding of the behavior of harvester components and their dynamic relationship with coffee are essential for mechanical harvesting management and for developing new products. The objective of this work was to obtain the coffee tree branch displacement (in terms of frequency and amplitude of vibration) through instrumentation and signal processing techniques. For this, a low cost system was developed, consisting of an Arduino open source electronic prototyping platform and an accelerometer. The acceleration signals were collected and processed via MatLab. The results showed the complete two-dimensional displacement performed by the coffee tree branches for different harvester settings during the mechanical coffee harvesting. From the vibration displacements of the branches it is possible to unveil the dynamic interaction between machine and coffee tree, contributing to the management of mechanical coffee harvesting and to the development of new vibration harvesting systems.