Coconut Harvesting Assist#

An agricultural design brief about making coconut harvesting safer, faster, and low cost without grid power.

See Text Problem Catalog for the text family index.

Quick Facts#

Field

Value

Problem ID

ideation_coconut_harvesting_assist

Problem Family

text

Implementation

TextProblem

Capabilities

citation-backed, prompt-packet, statement-markdown

Study Suitability

human-subjects-ready, ideation-friendly

Tags

text, human-subjects, ideation, agriculture, harvesting, safety

Taxonomy#

Formulation

textual_prompt

Is Dynamic

no

Orientation

engineering_practical

Objective Mode

qualitative

Constraint Nature

embedded-constraints

Tags

text, human-subjects, ideation, agriculture, harvesting, safety

Deliverable Type

concepts

Timebox Hint (Minutes)

48

Participants

individual

Evaluation Mode

idea_generation

Statement#

In certain places like the Philippines, Indonesia, and India, coconut harvesting is a major practice. The current process requires a skilled person to climb the tree and cut down the coconuts. The average height of a coconut tree is 35-40 feet and though there are grooves along the tree that make it easier to climb, the tree surface becomes very slippery during the rainy seasons. The current process may take as long as 12 hours for large farms that average 150 trees. The goal of this problem is to design a low-cost product to improve the coconut harvesting process so that it is safer and can be done more quickly.

Customer Needs:

  • Must remove coconut with little damage to fruit and tree

  • Must be safer to operate than current method

  • Must harvest coconuts quicker than current method

  • Electrical outlets are not available as a power source

  • Low cost

Prompt Profile#

Field

Value

Deliverable Type

concepts

Timebox Hint (Minutes)

48

Participants

individual

Evaluation Mode

idea_generation

Sources#

Key

Summary

levy_hilton_tomko_linsey_2017

Levy, Hilton, Tomko, and Linsey (2017). Investigating Problem Similarity Through Study of Between-Subject and Within-Subject Experiments. ASME IDETC/CIE 2017, DETC2017-68428.

Raw Citation Records#

Levy, Bryan, Ethan Hilton, Megan Tomko, and Julie Linsey (2017). Investigating Problem Similarity Through Study of Between-Subject and Within-Subject Experiments. ASME IDETC/CIE 2017, DETC2017-68428.