Mechanism to pick cultivated mushrooms - has carriage moved over bed with suction cup rim inflatable to engage mushroom and rotatable when evacuated to twist free from bed

摘要

The mechanism for picking mushrooms from a cultivation bed comprises a carriage automatically movable over the bed and with a video camera or photocell system to determine the size and position of the mushrooms to be picked and a sensor to detect their height. The carriage comprises one or more suction cups (2,7), each provided with an inflatable annular rim element (1,4) of soft resilient material. The or each cup is rotatable by a drive, e.g. a pneumatic cylinder (12) with controlled inlet (18,21) and outlet (19,20) connections to opposite ends and containing a piston (13) connected with a tooth rack (11) meshing with a gear (10) to rotate the cup via a gear transmission (9,8). After locating a mushroom, a suction cup (2,7) is applied and the element (1,4) is inflated to engage it, after which the cup is evacuated and rotated to twist the mushroom free.