GEO-SPIDER, INCORPORATED — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.130000000000001

Description

Numerous challenges face the Florida and U.S. citrus industries including global marketpressure urban and environmental pressures labor issues and emerging diseases and pests thusunderscoring the need for new production approaches. Over the last decade over 200000 acresof Florida citrus production has been lost due to the citrus canker eradication program and citrusgreening known as HLB. HLB is now considered endemic in Florida and hundreds of thousandsof acres are in step decline with minimal hope of finding remediation solutions. Long term hoperests on finding HLB resistant varieties and developing advanced management strategies thatcan control the psyllid population repel them from groves and manage trees in an optimaleconomic framework. One approach being considered is Advanced Production Systems (APS)that use high density semi-dwarfed trees and open hydroponics with optimized nutrient andwater availability which accelerates plant growth. When combined with HLB tolerantrootstocks the concept seeks to increase yield production per acre while simultaneouslyshortening the time to return on investment which means that grove life can be shortened bydisease pressure and still remain viable economically. However this new grove architecturewill require new equipment systems to manage production and harvesting. The systemconcept proposed will offer a broad range of production and harvesting implements.In this Phase Iproject we will advance a strategic aspect of fruit harvesting which willhelp improve harvesting performance quality of yield and provide growers with valuable geo- spatial data that can be used to improve production management. It is proposed in this Phase I todevelop and in-line fruit quality and yield monitor that will be integrated into the vertical liftelevator on the APS Over the Top Citrus Harvester (APS-OTCH) that has been explored inprevious Phase I and Phase II projects. This technology would be an add-on option that wouldmonitor fruit harvest yield/quality and DGPS location for either the mass harvester (juice) orselective robotic harvester (fresh) that is being developed by GeoSpider Inc. The technologywill measure fruit mass flow directly by monitoring elevator drive torque/motor pressure. Inaddition fruit count size and volume will be estimated using optical based sensors that can alsoprovide information about fruit coloration and can be used for fruit elimation via an in-line fruitseperator. The impact of citrus greening on fruit color size and flavor quality all suggest thatelimating poor quality fruit in the field will improve packout and reduce hauling costs. In futurework additional sensors could be added to this system to detect disease presence such as citruscanker and blackspot. An experimental prototype of the OTCH elevator will be fabricated andsensors integrated with a controller to collect sensor and DGPS data. Appropriate experimentalmethods will be implemented to calibrate sensor data for yield and quality estimation and thento evaluate the system performance in a laboratory setting. In the planned future Phase II projectwe will integrate the various components from Phase I projects into a fresh citrus harvestercomprised of multiple arms and material handling with fruit yield and quality monitoring. ThePhase II prototype can then be tested at the UF APS grove in Citra FL.