A harvesting machine for harvesting fruit from the ground has a cart having a frame, which is movable in a moving direction and carries, connected to it in an integral manner, a fruit harvesting device having a harvesting member and wheels rolling on the ground and designed for the height positioning the harvesting member; the cart having a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels; at least the front wheels being coupled to the frame by means of respective height-adjustable suspensions, each having a respective actuator; an electric-hydraulic command and control assembly being provided in order to adjust the height of the frame relative to the front wheels depending on the pressure of a chamber of at least one of the actuators and in order to rotate the frame around an instantaneous rotation axis, which is transverse to the moving direction, so as to adjust the load acting upon the positioning wheels and upon the front wheels.

A self-guided blossom picker uses a vision system to identify and locate blossoms or inflorescence growing on a plant. The device can be towed by a tractor or it can be self-propelled. Image data captured by the vision system is sent to an machine vision module, which interprets the data and identifies a location of blossom. A controller uses the location data to command a picker to the proper location. A cutter on the picker is actuated to remove the blossom.

A combined machine for harvesting and shelling almonds is described, comprising a shelling machine combined with a harvesting machine, wherein the shelling machine is connected to the harvesting machine so that the outlet of the almonds harvested by the harvesting machine coincides with the loading area of the shelling machine; such combined machine allows directly performing in a field, and upon harvesting, the shelling of the almonds; the shelling machine is arranged transversally to the advancement direction of the harvesting machine and is connected to the top part of the harvesting machine, so that the end from which the shelled products go out bestrides the adjacent row to the row treated by the harvesting machine and the shelled almonds are poured into a trailer towed in an adjacent inter-row.

The invention relates to an attachment for attaching to a harvesting machine, comprising a number of picking devices (2) distributed adjacent to one another over the working width, said picking devices having at least a first and a second picking rotor (10a, 10b), which can be driven in counterrotation. The drawing edges (14) on the drawing bodies (12) on the first and second picking rotors (10a, 10b) are arranged in relation to one another in such a way that, during rotary movement of the first and second picking rotors (10a, 10b), two adjacent drawing edges (14) of the first picking rotor (10a) hold, in the range of action of said drawing edges into the downward movement path of a plant stalk (8), the plant stalk (8) temporarily against the drawing edges (14) of the second picking rotor (10b) preceding and lagging behind the two adjacent drawing edges (14) of the first picking rotor (10a) and clamp the plant stalk (8), by means of the four contact points (26) of the plant stalk (8), against the drawing edges (14) of the first and second picking rotors (10a, 10b) into an arc shape approximating the enveloping circle (16) of the first picking rotor (10a), and on the second picking rotor (10b) a knife blade (20) is arranged between the preceding and lagging drawing edges (14) of the second picking rotor (10a), which knife blade cuts into the outside of the plant stalk (8) clamped in an arc shape.

The invention relates to an attachment for attaching to a harvesting machine, comprising a number of picking devices (2) distributed adjacent to one another over the working width, said picking devices having at least a first and a second picking rotor (10a, 10b), which can be driven in counterrotation. The drawing edges (14) on the drawing bodies (12) on the first and second picking rotors (10a, 10b) are arranged in relation to one another in such a way that, during rotary movement of the first and second picking rotors (10a, 10b), two adjacent drawing edges (14) of the first picking rotor (10a) hold, in the range of action of said drawing edges into the downward movement path of a plant stalk (8), the plant stalk (8) temporarily against the drawing edges (14) of the second picking rotor (10b) preceding and lagging behind the two adjacent drawing edges (14) of the first picking rotor (10a) and clamp the plant stalk (8), by means of the four contact points (26) of the plant stalk (8), against the drawing edges (14) of the first and second picking rotors (10a, 10b) into an arc shape approximating the enveloping circle (16) of the first picking rotor (10a), and on the second picking rotor (10b) a knife blade (20) is arranged between the preceding and lagging drawing edges (14) of the second picking rotor (10a), which knife blade cuts into the outside of the plant stalk (8) clamped in an arc shape.

Embodiments are directed to a plant trimmer. The plant trimmer may separate leaves or other peripheral plant matter from a body portion of a plant. In one aspect, an embodiment includes a rotatable basket having a set of ribs separated by openings in a basket sidewall and a cutting assembly having at least one blade. The rotatable basket may be configured to spin in a first direction. The cutting assembly may be configured to spin parallel to the rotatable basket and in a second direction, opposite the first direction. Plant matter extending through one of the openings in the sidewall of the rotatable basket maybe sheared by a cutting face of the blade and a rib of the rotatable basket.

An example harvesting device includes: a conduit having a distal end and a proximal end; a nozzle coupled to the distal end of the conduit, wherein a vacuum generating device is configured to generate a vacuum environment in the conduit and the nozzle coupled thereto; a housing coupled to the proximal end of the conduit, wherein the housing defines a chamber therein, and wherein the housing includes a divider that partitions a portion of the chamber into a first section and a second section; and a wedge rotatably mounted within the housing, wherein: (i) when the wedge is in a first position, fruit that has traversed through the conduit is deflected to the first section, and (ii) when the wedge is in a second position, fruit that has traversed through the conduit is deflected to the second section.

An Integrated dual-use machine is for harvesting and treating fruit on trees, in order to harvest the fruit when in season and treat the fruit on the tree with phytosanitary products. The machine includes a moveable structure, intended to shelter the fruit trees. The moveable structure includes a collection unit for the fruit that has been brought down, and is supported on one or two traction vehicles. The vehicles include at least one device for projecting and orienting air currents, at least one infrared camera, at least one collection belt, at least one load container, at least one conveyor belt that connects the collection belt to a load trailer, and a traction system that actuates tractor treads.

The present concept is a plant trimming assembly for trimming materials from plants and includes a frame, and a cylindrical slotted drum rotationally mounted to the frame along a longitudinal axis. The slotted drum includes an exterior surface and a longitudinally oriented internal passageway for receiving plant material there through. It further includes a longitudinally oriented cutting assembly retainer which is also rotationally mounted to the frame about the longitudinal axis such that it rotates concentrically around the outside of the exterior surface and along the length of the slotted drum. A longitudinally oriented blade is mounted to a cutting assembly which in turn is mounted to the cutting assembly retainer. The cutting assembly rotates in unison with the retainer around the outside of the exterior surface of the slotted drum. The cutting assembly is configured to maintain a pre-selected stand-off gap between a cutting edge of the blade and a circumferential contour of the exterior surface of the drum such that plant material projecting through a slot and beyond the stand-off gap will be trimmed off by the rotating blade cutting edge.

A robotic system (100) for harvesting fruit (12) includes an end effector (102) with a conduit extending between an input port and an output port. A vacuum system (108) coupled to the end effector (102) provides suction to suck an object into the input port. A collection system (110) includes multiple channels that extend along a vertical axis and are positioned in series along a horizontal axis. A positioning system (104) moves the end effector (102) along the horizontal and/or vertical axes and extends the end effector (102) away from the collection system (110) to position the input port near an object (e.g., fruit). Responsive to the object being sucked into the conduit, the positioning system (104) moves the end effector (102) to position the output port at a selected channel of the multiple channels to allow the object to be dispensed into the selected channel The selected channel is closest to the end effector (102) along the horizontal axis.