Abstract: Kerala has around 18 crore coconut trees which have to be harvested in every 45 days. So, there is demand of 40,000 climbers to ensure that the products are harvested. But the number of climbers available in the state is less than 10,000. This paper is to find a design of a device that can harvest coconut- a mechanism for tree climbing and plucking. We have taken into account the safety, reliability, the ease of use. Additional functions like cleaning the tree tops and spraying pesticides can be incorporated in the future. This system is so designed that it can be controlled by a common man as it does not involve complex procedure. Though there are a number of tree climbing machines available, an efficient coconut harvesting machine which can be feasibly made and employed in the agricultural sector is lacking. This is what motivated us to take up this as our project. Our aim is to design a robot that can make coconut harvesting quick, safe, and efficient. The coconut harvesting robot can be considered to be made of two parts: a coconut climbing mechanism and a coconut harvesting mechanism using robotic arm.
Keywords: Coconut Harvesting, Reliability, Robotic arm.