Aerial Palm Trimming Tool

[ent]

Hello all,

 

I am an engineer in the drone industry from Jacksonville, FL. A few months ago, I started tinkering with the idea of an aerial system for palm tree trimming. It seems to me that palm trimming is a labor-intensive and potentially dangerous task, and I felt that a system which would allow someone to trim palms with a remote controller while standing on the ground could be a useful system for people who trim palms professionally. I have been working for a few months now on my weeknights and weekends on developing a proof of concept system. However, I have a few questions that I would like to answer before pursuing further development:

 

1) What types of palms do professionals most commonly trim (especially in the southern/southeastern US)? What types of palms would an aerial system be most useful for trimming? From a few conversations with some folks at a local plant nursery, Sabals and Mexican fan palms strike me as good candidates.

2) What are the approximate costs for a tree trimming company to trim a palm? How do those costs break down in terms of labor, equipment, insurance, and other costs? The reason that I ask this question is because the answer to it would give me a sense for how much value my system could potentially create for a trimming company. My aim would be to design a system which would essentially act as a ladder or lift replacement, keeping trimmers safer while requiring fewer people to operate.

3) Tying in to question 2, if this system were to be developed, how much do you all think that professional trimmers would want to purchase/use it?

4) One of the designs that I have been considering would be limited in terms of how high it could fly. What would be the minimum height which the system would have to be able to reach for it to be useful?

 

Any answers, thoughts, or other feedback on this idea would be super helpful! Thanks in advance.

[kinzyjr]

2 hours ago, ent said:

1) What types of palms do professionals most commonly trim (especially in the southern/southeastern US)? What types of palms would an aerial system be most useful for trimming? From a few conversations with some folks at a local plant nursery, Sabals and Mexican fan palms strike me as good candidates.

2) What are the approximate costs for a tree trimming company to trim a palm? How do those costs break down in terms of labor, equipment, insurance, and other costs? The reason that I ask this question is because the answer to it would give me a sense for how much value my system could potentially create for a trimming company. My aim would be to design a system which would essentially act as a ladder or lift replacement, keeping trimmers safer while requiring fewer people to operate.

3) Tying in to question 2, if this system were to be developed, how much do you all think that professional trimmers would want to purchase/use it?

4) One of the designs that I have been considering would be limited in terms of how high it could fly. What would be the minimum height which the system would have to be able to reach for it to be useful?

1) Anything really tall comes to mind.  Cost of a bucket truck vs. Cost of a drone.  Washingtonia robusta for sure.

2) Personally not sure as I ask these folks to leave my property without performing any work.

3) Probably quite a bit since it is a lot safer than hooking up a harness to a bucket truck and cutting with a chainsaw or pole saw.  Especially in areas around power lines.

4) From my point of view, a good minimum to shoot for is 100 feet.