S-shaped Multipurpose Monorail for Hillside Orchards

Japan Agricultural Research Quarterly
ISSN 00213551
NII recode ID (NCID) AA0068709X
Full text
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The Bio-oriented Technology Research Advancement Institution (BRAIN) developed a multipurpose monorail system for hillside orchards, with the cooperation of several manufacturers, as part of the project called “Urgent Development of Agricultural Machinery” promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. This monorail saves an enormous amount of energy and labor for various tasks in hillside orchards with slopes of up to 30°, such as transporting harvest, spraying agricultural chemicals, spreading fertilizer, weed control, and processing of pruned branches. The system consists of two independent monorails: the main monorail, which runs uphill along the edge of the orchard, and the sub-monorail, which runs between every two or three rows of trees all around the orchard along the contour lines in an “S” shape. The main monorail is used for carrying goods in and out of the orchard by conveying them to and collecting them from the sub-monorail. The sub-monorail can be connected to various devices such as freight cars, an air blast sprayer, a fertilizer spreader, an herbicide sprayer, and a branch shredder. The monorail′s effectiveness for reducing labor was proved in a year of testing and evaluation at two citrus orchards.

Date of issued
Creator YAMAMOTO Satoshi KANAMITSU Mikio AJIKI Keiji FUJIWARA Megumi TANAKA Kenji
Subject

citrus production

unmanned sprayer

Publisher Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
Available Online
NII resource type vocabulary Journal Article
Volume 41
Issue 2
spage 147
epage 152
DOI 10.6090/jarq.41.147
Rights Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
Language eng

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