Concept # 6: William Tell Projectile Machine

William Tell Projectile Machine enhances multiple projectile arrows around to shoot down apples, then retracts the arrow with chain attach to it.

Concept # 5: Snakes Picking Machine

This concept is using genetic modified snakes to pick apples from trees. Well, if you can really picture in your head, there are some images that might help you visualize the whole concept. You can thank it as real life "feed the snake game",which like the one in your cell phone.

However, here is a problem how can you make a snake to vomit out the apples it has just swallowed? The answers are varies, yet the most effective way is Syrup of ipecac. Down below is the demonstration of how Ipecac would work, and no, even though, it's from the Family Guy, that is not exaggeration.

Another approach to dealt with this issue is squeezing machine (just as what illustration refers).

Concept # 4: Bibilcal Manipulation System

This machine is not a machine per say; however, there are parts that transcribe energy into action to achieve the ultimate goal, and in this case, picking down apples from the trees.

How does this machine or system work?

Well, in this case, the snake plays two parts: one is luring the men and women at the Garden of Eden to pick down the apples or forbidden fruits from the trees; Second is to make them packaging and shipping away the apples and threaten them not to eat the products by the ancient surveillance tape of Adam and Eve being kicked out.

The tapes will be 24/7 broadcast on the televisions wall that surround the plantation zone for frobbiden fruits (or apples). Also, from time to time, the snake will pat their backs and tell them, "this is for your own good~"

Concept # 3: Apple Shaker

The idea behind this concept is similar to Pecon Tree Shaker, which you can watch how it works down below at the YouTube Video Podcast. This matchine is meant to work in Vertical Farming Plantation, and the purpose of this system is to produce apple juice, not apples; therefore, it does not need to concern about bruising the fruits.

Concept # 2: Vertical Picking Robotic Arms

Concept # 1: Auto Track Picking Machine

This machine can work either in normal plantation or vertical farming system and indoor farming system.

Down below is the example of robotic arm that can pick up an apple remotely or without human control. With this remote controlled targeting system, fruit pickers living in India can pick tomatoes growing in the USA. You click on the target, and the target will be picked/hit, NO need for hand and eye coordination! Yes, just click!

NONDESTRUCTIVE HARVEST TIME DECISION OF MELONS BY A PORTABLE FIRMNESS TESTER

The harvest time of melon is usually decided by days after crossing. However, the decision of the harvest time is not easy in case cultivation conditions are different, not easier in case it is difficult to judge harvest time with external appearance. The firmness of a netted melon cultivar was measured using a nondestructive method. Namely, transmission velocity (m/s) was measured. Transmission velocity is slower, as fruit ripens. When the fruit was mature and especially when it was sunny, the transmission velocity was slower. When the transmission velocity was measured below 80 m/s twice, the sucrose content was amounted to more than 8.5 %, indicating the maximum content. On the other hand, the total content of glucose and fructose was unchanged. As a result, it was concluded that transmission velocity could decide the harvest time of melon fruit nondestructively.

Vision system simplifies robotic fruit picking

Robotic apple picker relies on a camera inside the gripper and off-the-shelf components and software. The European standard height of fruit trees on professional plantations must be between two and three meters. The ACRO automated fruit-picking machine (AFPM) harvester uses a unique vacuum-gripper design to pick the fruit and ease coordination between the vision system and robot controller. Mounted behind a common agriculture tractor, the AFPM platform supports a Panasonic industrial robot to “pick” the fruit (see Fig. 1).

The AFPM apple harvester also consists of a tractor-driven generator for power supply, a horizontal stabilization unit, a seventh external vertical axis to enlarge the operation range, a SICK safety scanning device, a Siemens central control unit, and touch panel PC with human-machine interface (HMI). MVTec Software’s Halcon image processing software provides the robot guidance coordinates, while a canopy and curtain, which can be folded up during transportation, reduce the affects of ambient light (see Fig. 2). The AFPM needs one driver on the tractor while it effectively handles the workload of six workers.

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Robert Frost: After Apple-Picking (1914)

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.

And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Picking tips:

Select firm, bruise-free apples. The color can be anything from dark green, to yellow, pink, orange, bright red, dark red or even a combination. It all depends on the variety. And color is not really how you tell when an apple is ripe. Apples should be crisp and firm.

The key will be to ask the farmer which are ripe. He will know because it is calculated from the number of days since the trees flowered. And he will track that date carefully , if he's a good apple grower!

The farmer will also know what characteristics to look for in the particular varieties that he is growing.

Apples ripen from the outside of the tree towards the center, so the apples out the outside of the tree will ripen first. Picking apples directly from a tree is easy. Roll the apple upwards off the branch and give a little twist; don't pull straight away from the tree. If two apples are joined together at the top, both will come away at the same time. Don't shake the trees or branches. If the apple you are trying to pick drops, (or others on the tree) go ahead and pick it up. They're perfectly fine!

Once picked, don't throw the apples into the baskets, place them in gently, or they will bruise and go bad more quickly.

Apple Picking Machine: Project Briefing

For the starter, this briefing should have been posted first before all other postings within this labels, but anyway, here is the briefing, and a first assessment on what, why, how and where this project should go.


First, the premises of the project:

To understand this, we must first provide a definition for the "Apple Picking Machine". According to Wikipedia, machine "is any device that uses energy to perform some activity. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work. A simple machine is a device that transforms the direction or magnitude of a force without consuming any energy. The word "machine" is derived from the Latin machina." As the the apple picking part, quite literally, it means that the machine has to pick down an apple from a tree without damage it. However, here is an interesting question, can we define a well organized corporate structure as machine? Since there is different parts (departments) that utilize force (labour force ) to assist in performing any type of work. Perhaps we should investigate that deeper later on.

Second, the situation for the project

Here are the few ideas for the project direction where apple picking machine might be needed or situated:

1. In the possible near futuristic setting where suitable growing environment is out of question
2. For the health conscious consumer market, where growing organic is necessary but still too expensive. So, to low down the cost, apple picking machine is needed.
3. In the fairy tale realm, where villains find poisonous apples are most effective way to deal with ignorant naive girls. Therefore, some merchants decide to massively produce it.
4. Also in the fictional realm (some people claims it actually existed...), in the biblical world, Satan found out the forbidden fruit (or apple) would definitely sell in this and any other dimension. As result, he cooperates with modern age capitalists to commercially produce it.
   

Living Roof

Wired Science heads back to the California Academy of Sciences to learn about the museum's living roof, which features 1.2 million native California plant species, solar panels and a natural ventilation system.

Using Garden Roof Systems to Achieve Sustainable Building Envelopes

There is increasing interest in the garden roof system as a sustainable building design option in North America today. This Update reports the results of a field study to evaluate the thermal performance of this technology, as well as its potential to retain storm water runoff.

Garden roofs, sometimes known as green roofs or rooftop gardens, are specialized roof systems that support vegetation growth. With technical advances in roofing materials and components, garden roof systems can now be successfully installed in most climates, providing an attractive design option, especially in urban areas where land available for parks and green space is limited. As well, concern about sustainability and climate change have led to increased interest in garden roofs as a possible means of helping address these issues. However, while garden roofs are increasing in popularity, there is little information on their performance in cold climates.

Figure 1. Conventional roofing system (a) with and (b) without a garden roof system.

Figure 2. Protected membrane roofing system (a) with and (b) without a garden roof system.

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Vertical Farming

Idea of vertical farming or indoor farming is nothing fancy or new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, and ranges of herbs have been in the market for sometimes. What's new about this idea is that possibility of scaling up the already existing production model to accommodate the future overwhelmed population, diminished farmlands, and unpredictable weather.