Mechanized Harvesting of Plants in a Controlled Environment

The proposed Plant Harvesting Mechanization System (PHARMS) would comprise machinery and controls for semiautomated harvesting of plants grown in a controlled environment. The PHARMS was conceived as a prototype of harvesters to be incorporated into life-support systems of spacecraft and remote planetary bases, wherein plants would provide food and contribute to recycling of air and water. On Earth, PHARMS-like systems could reduce the labor of harvesting plants from protected agricultural systems in which special fruits and vegetables, herbs, ornamental plants, and mushrooms are grown. At harvest time, the PHARMS would be moved from storage to a location near the plantgrowth chamber. There, it would be unfolded from a compact configuration, then prepared for operation by setting of control parameters and mechanical alignment with the chamber and plants. In operation, the PHARMS would pull plant trays out of the chamber and remove plants from the trays. Then it would subject the plants to a variety of other processes, depending on the crop: Examples of such processes include drying, cutting, chopping, stripping of seeds from stalks, threshing, separation of roots from stalks or vines, breaking pods to extract seeds, and pneumatic separation of seeds from chaff.