DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE OF A PROTOTYPE MOTORISED MANGO HARVESTER

A prototype motorised hand-held mango harvester was designed and fabricated at the faculty of Engineering , University of Agriculture Malaysia. The harvester is aimed at reducing the harvesting operation time, improving the working comfort during the operation and increasing the harvesting capacity. The mango harvester consists of gripping and detaching devices, a power transmission shaft with a 12 V battery operated motor and an aluminium pole together with a collecting chute. Preliminary observation on the harvester's performance showed significant and satisfactory results. It was found out that the magno harvester was capable of harvesting on an average six seconds for each fruit detachment. Further study is being conducted to improve the efficiency and capacity of the mango harvester.