Abstract
The apple is an important agricultural product in north Tohoku region. However, the harvest process is still depending on manual labors. In the manual apple harvesting, the apple is rotated around the absciss layer. The tensile strength between apple peduncle and the absciss layer was measured approximately 47N. The rotational strength between the apple peduncle and the absciss layer was measured approximately 0.05N·m. The convenient way of harvesting the apple is by making the apple rotation with the absciss layer as the rotation center. The harvesting hand with the above performance was developed. The experimental result showed that the developed hand harvested apples with the probability of success of more than 90%. The developed hand has a good performance for apple harvesting.
