In all operations of banana post-harvesting, picking and transportation are the operations with the highest labor intensity and the highest production costs. The operation of banana de-handing is still in the traditional stage by manual cutting, which seriously impedes the development of the banana industry towards mechanization, automation and intelligence. This review summarizes and analyzes the mechanized technology research status and equipment application of the banana picking, transportation and de-handing operations in banana orchards around the world and proposes basic ideas and constructive suggestions for quickening the mechanized development of banana post-harvesting.

In the operations of the banana postharvesting process, the design and development related to the dehanding machine, the cutting and crushing machine of bunch stalks, and the fiber extraction machine of bunch stalks are in the initial stages. In addition, with the development of society and urbanization, the aging populations in hilly and mountainous areas, where bananas are planted, are becoming a more and more serious problem. The basic physical characteristic parameters of banana bunches, banana hands, and bunch stalks are the basis for studying their biomechanical properties and designing and developing the corresponding mechanical equipment. We measured the diameter, thickness of rind, curvature, density, moisture content, diameter of vascular bundle, weight of bunch stalk, and axial distance and circumferential angle of Brazilian and plantain banana hands using experiments and statistical analysis. Through the combination of physical experiments and numerical statistics, we obtained the value range and changing law of the physical characteristic parameters of banana bunches.

With the continuous improvement of smart agriculture and food safety requirements, accurate detection of agricultural product quality has become a key link in the entire agricultural industry chain. As an important non-destructive detection method for agricultural product quality, spectroscopic detection technology has achieved significant progress in detection accuracy, speed, and application scope in recent years. This paper systematically reviews the application research of technologies such as hyperspectral imaging (HSI), visible-near-infrared spectroscopy (Vis-NIR), near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT), surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), fluorescence imaging, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in the quality detection of various agricultural products. It focuses on analyzing the latest achievements of these technologies in external quality evaluation, internal quality evaluation, nutrient component analysis, freshness and safety detection, and adulteration identification of agricultural products. This review also summarizes the challenges faced by existing spectroscopic detection technologies and proposes prospects for future development directions, including the development of miniaturized equipment, multi-technology integration, and intelligent analysis, aiming to provide comprehensive references for further research and application of spectroscopic technology in the field of agricultural product quality detection.

Many aspects of the agricultural industry such a field crop planting and harvesting and chemical application in fruit crops have been employing mechanization and automation solutions for decades. However, the de-handing operation in banana postharvest operations is usually performed manually. Mechanical or automated de-handing is a potential long-term solution to address labor shortages and the associated high costs. Bananas are mainly grown in developing countries located in tropical and subtropical regions, where the development of agricultural mechanization and automation solutions started only recently and is progressing relatively slowly. In addition, large-scale banana orchards are mainly distributed in hilly and mountainous areas, though there are also some small-scale banana plantations in plain areas. The complex environment of banana orchards and the aging farming population are other important factors that make it difficult to realize mechanized operation of banana de-handing. In recent years, researchers have proposed advanced techniques that may facilitate the development of mechanical de-handing systems. However, the successful adoption of mechanical de-handing technology still faces many challenges. This paper systematically reviews the existing research on de-handing technologies and component mechanisms. A comprehensive evaluation is carried out from the perspectives of feasibility of the mechanism design, stability of the model simulation and reliability of the prototype systems developed. The future challenges and opportunities for designing and practically adopting mechanical de-handing equipment are also summarized and discussed.

Aiming at the problem that the banana de-handing device has poor radial deployment to the banana bunch stalk during the mechanized banana de-handing procedure, this paper presented a ring deployable mechanism based on a set of planar seven-bar linkages. It consists of multiple basic deployable units, which has great folding/deploying performance and is suitable for manufacturing a banana de-handing device, the diameter of which can be variably larger. The kinematics analysis of the mechanism was done, and the trajectory in space was obtained. When the mechanism is fully deployed, the diameter is 164 mm. The ratio of the folded height to the deployed diameter is 0.732, the ratio of the folded diameter to the deployed diameter is 0.262, and the ratio of the folded volume to the maximum of the deployed volume is 0.069. An experimental prototype of 500, 500, and 768 mm in length, width, and height was manufactured, and the deploying performance was analyzed to show the feasibility. Finally, experimental results show that 71.43% of the banana hands are de-handed successfully. The mechanism has a great deploying effect on banana bunch stalk, and the quality of the banana crown incision is good.