Application of Design Knowledge in Practice: Performance Evaluation of Single Operator Handheld Battery Powered Tea Harvesting Machine in Context to Tea Gardens of Assam

Tea is a widely consumed drink in the world as a beverage. The history of tea cultivation in India is quite old. After China, India is the second largest producer of tea. Presently tea industry is facing shortage in the workforce, and so the industry is looking for suitable automation alternatives in various stages of tea production. Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) has designed and developed a single operator handheld battery powered tea harvesting machine. The present paper reports the results and analysis of the experiments carried out with this machine from the point of view of its performance. The experiments were performed in a tea garden of Assam, India.