Development of Motor-Driven Convenience Equipment for Harvesting Chili Peppers on Bare Ground

Purpose: Harvesting chili peppers is a very difficult task in chili pepper farming. It imposes a great burden on farmers, many of whom are old. Therefore, in this study, we proposed and fabricated a motor-driven convenience for harvesting chili peppers. This equipment is suitable for use in the local chili pepper farming environment to help workers harvest chili peppers conveniently. Methods: We proposed and fabricated a device by considering the physical body dimensions of farm workers and the chili pepper cultivation method. Moreover, we conducted an experiment to check the ultraviolet (UV) blocking performance of shading nets to develop a sun blocking device that protects workers from UV rays. The performance of the proposed device was evaluated through productivity verification by conducting harvesting tests and convenience analysis by using the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) tool. Results: The REBA score of the proposed motor-driven convenience equipment for harvesting chili peppers was one point, and harvest quantity per hour achieved with the motor-driven convenience equipment was 21% and 7% higher than those achieved with human labor and the manually driven convenience-type equipment, respectively. Conclusions: The proposed motor-driven convenience equipment for harvesting chili peppers improved the productivity of harvesting work compared to those of existing manual convenience equipment and human labor, in addition to improving work convenience. © 2020, The Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery.