Power Requirements for Olive Mechanical Harvesting Using Trunk Shaker

Abstract

Abstract A mathematical analysis was done to predict the power requirements of the olive trunk shaker. The predicted required power of the olive trunk shaker is affected by shaking displacement, fruit detachment force, fruit mass, stem length, damping ratio, unbalanced mass of tree shaker, and exciting shaking frequency. The Olive trunk shaker was tested in the field at three attachment heights, 400, 600, and 800 mm, and six levels of olive trunk diameter: 78, 84, 101, 143, 158, and 186 mm. The results showed that the theoretical shaking power was 12.8 kW while the actual required shaking power ranged between 8.4 to 16.7 kW, with an average of 12.7 kW due to differences in tree trunk diameters and different attachment heights. Multiple regression using the least square method was used to find a statistical relation between the theoretical equation and the actual required power as a function of the clamp attachment height and the trunk diameter. The regression coefficient of the predicted equation was 91.2% for attachment height values between 400 and 800 mm and tree trunk diameter values between 78 and 186mm, and the mean absolute error of the prediction model was 0.5174 kW.