Macadamia Nut Harvester

Macadamia nuts are a valuable cash crop in Hawaii. Commercial harvesting requires at least three types of heavy machinery, each with a single specialized function. The project’s purpose is to design and prototype a single robotic nut-harvesting vehicle to replace the multiple machines currently used, facilitating faster harvesting and eliminating the cost of harvesting by hand. The robotic machine must be able to navigate a macadamia nut orchard with minimum human interaction for the nine-month harvesting season. The objective is to increase crop yield from conventional small-scale harvesting methods, and to provide a consistent harvesting schedule for Kawainui Farm. The vehicle platform was designed to accommodate a hopper in which to collect nuts, electrical components for power and navigation, and a pickup head to collect nuts on the ground. The vehicle relies on GPS and computer vision to navigate a preprogrammed path through the orchard. Hawaii’s heavy rainfall limits GPS use, so the vehicle can be manually radio controlled.