Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

On 4th April, the W1009 participants took a tour to Mosaic Phosphate Plant (Four Corners, New Wales). This was followed by field demonstration tour to Lykes Bros., Ft. Basinger, FL to witness the development of multiple sensing and mechanical systems used in precision horticulture: self-propelled canopy shaker, air shaker for mechanical harvesting, precision sprayer; plant material removal system, tree counting and mapping system, low-cost remote sensing technologies, used in citrus production.

On April 5, 2012, the members met at Hyatt Place Hotel, Orlando, FL for a business meeting that started at 8:00 am. The project advisor Ralph Cavalieri was not able to attend this meeting. Cavalieri informed the group through Zhang from Washington State University that the W1009 project will officially end on Sept 13, 2013. If we decide to rewrite the proposal, the deadline to submit the proposal is January 15, 2013. The writing committee needs to get the proposal ready by December, 2012. Zhang suggested that the proposal should be done even earlier, given the upcoming SCRI proposal deadline in January. Schmoldt mentioned that there is a template to write the proposal and document to summarize the impact of this project. The objectives of the rewritten proposal can be the same if the group has not accomplished all the objectives.

There was a discussion among the group members regarding the low participation in the W1009 meetings in the past five years. Some of the reasons for low participation were thought to be because of the following:

- Fewer meetings (three) held in the past five years (2008 in Baltimore, 2011 in Hawaii, and 2012 in Orlando). There are 41 people and 23 institutions listed on the official website of the project, but there were only 10-15 participants in last years and this years meeting. The meeting discussed whether there is a need for change in governance and organization for the extended project.
- The goal of this project is to promote the cooperation between group members. However, it did not happen after the Baltimore meeting in 2008.
- Heinemann and Gautz: Funding (in particular the SCRI project) is the enabler for such cooperation between group members.
- Lu: do we need to remove those members from the list who have never participated in the W1009 meeting?
- Lewis: the W1009 meeting should setup call-in phones or internet access options to encourage others to join the meeting remotely.

A motion was made by Heinemann to rewrite the proposal and extend the project. Zhang seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously after discussion. A second motion was made by Tabb to form a committee to rewrite the proposal. Heinemann seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously after discussion. Several members volunteered to be in the writing committee: Heinemann (will involve Tara Baugher for the logic model), Tabb, Zhang, Li, Ehsani, and Tony Grift (not in the meeting). Ehsani will take the lead if Grift is not willing in doing so.

Next meeting: Zhang from Washington State University would like to host the next meeting in the state of Washington in 2013. The tentative time for the meeting will be around mid- to late June.

New officers: Heinemann nominated Khosla as the incoming secretary of the W1009 project. Zhang seconded and the nomination was approved unanimously. The incoming officers of the project would be- Chair: Reza Ehsani; Vice Chair: Changying Li; Secretary: Raj Khosla.

About the project report for this year: Project advisor Ralph Cavalieri will edit the report after receiving the compiled reports from each state. Publication discussion: both journal and conference papers, as well as extension reports can be included in the publication list. The papers/reports must be searchable in public database (published and accessible).

USDA-NIFA Program Director Daniel Schmoldt gave an update of the SCRI program: Whether the SCRI program will be reauthorized by the new Farm Bill will be known by June 2012. The funding for the first five years will be spent over by this year.

There was a discussion about potential changes in the new proposal for the W1009 project:

- Heinemann, Khosla, Zhang, and Lewis: more integrated language to be included to promote participants from extension (reflected in SCRI projects) and other disciplines such as horticultural sciences, plant pathology, etc. Non-engineers should be involved, such as horticulturist, soil scientists, etc. The language of the proposal should be rephrased to reflect this change.
- The W1009 project could have joint meetings with other USDA multi-state projects (such as precision agriculture project).
- Have more input and involvement from the industry. Gautz: proprietary information could be an issue when the industry is involved.
- Schmoldt: stakeholders should be involved during the rewriting process.
- Related potential organizations that can interact with the W1009 could be: ASHS, IFT, food safety group, viticulture.
- Expanded list: Schmoldt will provide a list of interested group members that would expand the participation.

Station reports were presentation started at 10:20 am up to around 12:30 pm. The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm.

State reports can be viewed on W-1009's Homepage under Additional Documents using the following link: http://lgu.umd.edu/lgu_v2/homepages/attachs.cfm?trackID=10356

Activities and Accomplishments
Members of W1009 have produced several outcomes resulting from number of research activities. The research areas are broadly classified as: (1) specialty crop management (thinning, processing, disease detection & chemical application), (2) mechanical harvesting (including harvest assist), and (3) food quality and safety.

Specialty crop management: Yield estimation is an important component of orchard management. In Florida, machine vision algorithms were developed with a detection accuracy of 80% for counting immature (green) citrus fruits. Similarly, ground-based and aerial remote sensing techniques were developed for detecting Hanglongbing (HLB), a serious citrus disease in orchards. In addition, precision spraying experiments are underway to improve the chemical spraying efficiency with reduced consumption by adjusting the louver opening and air flow based on canopy size. In Hawaii, coffee/cacao huller and winnower was developed capable of producing 20 kg of cacao/hr. In Iowa, several aspects of precision farming such as automated intra-row weeder, machine vision system for crop identification and localization, nozzle control technology for spray drift reduction, and precision rate control system for fertilizer application are being developed and evaluated. The automated weeder incorporated novel mechanism for the lateral motion of tine weeding mechanism. Ultrasonic and laser sensors were evaluated for canopy shape and distance measured for automated strong thinning in Pennsylvania. The Darwin string thinner was tested on apple and peach crops. In apples, one of the concerns was the spread of fireblight. Similarly, researchers are working in Michigan in improved cherry production systems by integrating plant/tree design with the engineering concepts such as harvesting. Research in USDA involve 3D construction of apple trees using modeling for robotic pruning and technology development for presorting apple in the orchard for efficient postharvest storage, packing and management.

Mechanical harvesting: A miniaturized low-cost berry impact recording sensor (BIRD) and associated software was developed for the evaluation of blueberry mechanical harvesting process. The real bruising rate of blueberries as determined using BIRD sensor was compared with actual bruising. It was found that FL 05-528 was resistant to bruising in comparison to 'Scintilla', 'Farthing' and 'Sweetcrisp'. Plant material removal system was developed to assist the removal of foreign material such as twigs and leaves from the mechanically harvesting citrus fruits. In addition, machine vision system for estimating the amount of plant material and yield sensor for predicting the harvested yield was developed to work in conjunction with the plant material removal system. An upgraded orchard platform-mounted with harvest assist system was tested in Pennsylvania for apple harvesting. Growers Financial Indifference Value of about $746/acre/yr was established for harvest assist system. In Michigan, fabrication of simple and cost-effective chestnut harvester is ongoing for small-scale producers. The current prototype is capable of good material collection capabilities, with good separation between desirable and discard materials, while minimizing degradation of chestnuts.

Food quality and safety: W1009 researchers are working on several aspects of food quality and safety. Research on understanding the nature of bacterial colonization on plant surfaces to prevent contamination, lead to the development of biomimetic plant microstructure to study the E. coli adhesion. It was found that the stomatal opening and flow direction in trichome play a significant role in bacterial attachment; while polarity (hydrophobic, hydrophilic) has a little impact. In addition, sensors were developed to monitor the quality and safety of postharvest onions. The hyperspetcral imaging system was found to be effective in monitoring the onion internal quality. In Hawaii, heat treatment to eradicate coffee berry borer in green coffee beans was optimized. Mathematical model of borer mortality was developed at a given temperature. In Michigan, hyperspectral sensor development is on-way to nondestructively predict apple firmness and soluble solid content (SSC) as well as blueberries quality. The apple firmness and SSC detection system will be compiled with the apple sorting and grading system. Computer tomotgraphy (CT) scans have been used to evaluate internal quality and defects in chestnuts at Michigan. The research has also been extended to cherries and pineapples. Visible-near infrared based methods have also been used to evaluate potato tissue characteristics, and glucose and sucrose content.

Output:
The W1009 members collectively published about 45 research papers, the majority of which were published in well-recognized, peer reviewed journals. The research outputs have been summarized in these publications. In addition, significant contributions were made through workshops, conferences, field demonstrations, online materials, extension materials, etc. The growers and other stakeholders are involved in these projects with significant contribution in terms of knowledge and other inputs. Several students and researchers are also being trained in these areas of research. The research stations will continue to work on their specific projects that contribute towards the goals of this project.

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