AVR is presenting its size measuring system on the Puma 4.0 potato bunker harvester. Thanks to the camera system on the bunker filling web, growers get more accurate insight into yields. Potatoes are recognized using vision technology, while stones and clods are disregarded.
“For years, various yield measuring systems have been available for potato harvesters. One of the disadvantages of these systems is that they are nothing more than weighing cells relaying a certain value. The system cannot distinguish between potatoes and soil clods or stones,” says Pieter Galle, Product Manager at AVR.
The size measuring system based on camera data first recognizes the potatoes in the product stream and then measures them. As a result, the displayed data is 100% relevant.
Size is a very important quality parameter in the potato industry. Think about seed potatoes, potatoes for the fresh market and the French fry industry. Growers now can see what share of the harvested potatoes has the desired size, which means detailed information on at least one quality parameter of the product is available. Furthermore, the results of the size measurement can provide insights for future agronomic decisions.
It also gives the rest of the processing chain insight on which sizes will be delivered, without having to rely on spot checks.
In the context of precision agriculture, where the main objective is to achieve as efficient a result as possible with the available resources – size measurement, like yield, is a very interesting litmus test. “The knowledge about all inputs is already there, but now the result data also becomes available,” says Galle. “And not only as far as the number of trucks per field is concerned, but also for the corresponding position or zone in the field.”
Digital size measurement
To gain a perfect insight into what is harvested in the field, AVR has integrated a digital size measurement system on the Puma 4.0 self-propelled potato harvester. This system utilizes cameras mounted on the bunker filling web to determine potato size during harvest. These images are processed through AVR Connect, and the gathered data can then be displayed in two ways.
The size measurement data can be displayed either as geospatial or matrix data. The geospatial data provides an overview of which potato sizes are harvested in each zone of the field. The matrix structure gives an overview of the different sizes (length and width) of the potatoes as a percentage of the total harvested quantity of a trip or field. All data ranges within the matrix can be dynamically adjusted based on specific customer needs.
Hence, the AVR size measurement system allows for a fully digital size outlay of the harvested potatoes. The system will be presented during the upcoming Interpom fair in Kortrijk (Belgium).
