Improving efficiency of commercial wild blueberry harvester using precision agriculture technologies

拟议举措的总体目标是开发一个自动化综合采伐系统。该系统将识别收获损失的来源，以提高现有野生蓝莓收获机的浆果采摘效率。目前的商业野生蓝莓收获机经历了15%至25%的产量损失。通过提高收割机的收割效率，大西洋省份和魁北克的社会经济效益将是巨大的，因为野生蓝莓产业是这些地区的主要贡献者。长期可靠的收获技术应有助于工业的持续扩展，从而增加生产和制造加工部门的就业机会。拟议的研究将培养高素质的人才（研究生和本科生和博士后研究员）和生产者和行业代表的持续“终身”应用教育。

The overall objective of the proposed initiative is to develop an automated integrated harvesting system. The system will identify the sources of harvest losses in order to improve berry picking efficiency of the existing wild blueberry harvester. The current commercial wild blueberry harvester experiences 15 to 25% yield loss. By increasing harvesting efficiency of harvester the socio-economic benefit to the Atlantic provinces and Quebec would be substantial as the wild blueberry industry is a major contributor in these regions. Reliable harvesting technologies over the long term should assist with continued industry expansion leading to increased employment opportunities in the production and manufacturing processing sectors. The proposed research will train highly qualified personnel (graduate and undergraduate student and postdoctoral fellow) and the continuing "life long" applied education of producers and industry representatives.