Development of a Compact and High Mobility Elevating Work Platform for Orchards

Japanese orchard workers spend a great deal of time doing manual labor, including flower thinning, fruit thinning, leaf thinning, harvesting and pruning. Most use stepladders for working in the upper parts of trees. To reduce this labor, and to improve worker safety, we have developed an easily driven mobile elevating work platform. The device consists of an omnidirectional steering system combined with a horizontal stability control device.