Smartbins: Using Intelligent Harvest Baskets to Estimate the Stages of Berry Harvesting

Abstract

In some important berry-producing countries, such as Chile, the fruit is harvested manually. The markets for these products are generally very distant, and any damage caused to the fruit during harvesting will be expressed in its shelf life. The first step to understanding the harvesting process is to identify what happens to the harvest baskets in each stage (picking, wait-full, transport-full, freezing tunnel, emptying and transport-empty), allowing variables that can affect the shelf life to be identified. This article proposes the use of Smartbins, intelligent harvest baskets with sensors to collect weight, temperature, and vibration data. Combined analysis of the variables collected, using machine learning algorithms, allows the system to estimate which stage the basket is at with an accuracy of 80%, and to assess whether the fruit has been exposed to situations that could affect its shelf life. Due to imbalance characteristics of the data collected, the best results were obtained in longer stages (picking and wait-full stages with 89% and 86% respectively).