WEEK 1 : PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

A. PROBLEM STATEMENT:

“60% of export quality mangoes in Maharashtra go to waste due to improper handling there needs to a tool designed to better harvest the produce so that this percentage can be lowered this will directly increase the profits for the farmers”

B. RESEARCH

a. Existing Problems of the Current Product:

i. Low – Availability of Labour as harvesting doesn’t play that handsomely.

ii. Use of the same crude tools and harvesting practices

iii. Mangoes harvested before being ripened i.e. colour change in the man go when it is ripe. Then only It needs to be picked mangoes picked before that will not ripen thus leading to wasted fruit

iv. Harvesting is cumbersome due to the old tool.

v. Stem Acid of the fruit damages the skin of the fruit .Blackening it which reduces the market value drastically.

vi. Mangoes which bruise also darken which leads to rejection of the fruit for export.

B. PROBLEMS ON THE SIDE OF THE USER (HUMAN INTERACTION):

i. Too much load of the entire shaft on the shoulder and arms of the user.

ii. Fixed basket makes it hard for moving the tool to the fruit and needs constant adjustment of position.

iii. After being cut the fruit directly falls to the ground, after which it is extremely likely to get bruised.

C. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS:

i. Auto levelling basket to increase the usability of the product to make sure the basket is always level to the ground and the cutter always aligned to cut the stem of the fruit.

ii. Colour Sensor to give the binary decision on whether the mango is to be picked or not.

iii. A net channel to be designed below the basket to guide the fruit into the basket without damaging it.

iv. Counter Balance provided to reduce the stress on hands and shoulders of the users.

v. Counter Balance hangs around the HIP so that the entire weight is on the hip and not entirely on the hands. (existing problem – use fatigue )

updated project sketck for the final project assignement

UPDATED PROJECT STATEMENT

There are various factors which are going to affect the colour sensor on the stick approach of earlier projects . The earlier work which has been done contains various fallacies where the photographs of certain fruits were taken in non standard way (i.e) in sunlight etc . There doesn’t exist a baseline reading of what is the actual colour of a RGB of the fruit (mango). So went ahead with the idea of a turntable which will be capture the RGB data of a fruit so that It could be studied to better understand the ripening process and also to quantify it . Imagine a matrix of points of rgb data . If we setup a collection algorithm then we can track the colour progression of the fruit . This leads to future applications of it being used as the datahub of drone farming . Where this data will be usefull . or various standalone devices which will help the farmer of the future keep and eye on its produce .

HOW WILL IT BE USED

This project is the data generation unit of the entire experiment . This box will be deployed to various orchards across the state so that the RGB tables of the fruit and its varieties can be catalogued correctly .

Personal Learning Milestones :

Ideated on a project idea . Checked out the feasibility of the project for the duration of the course. Did a need finding and traige of what was the most necessary part of the project and started working on it .