New type of transverse moving box mechanism for pot seedling transplanting machine

The existing moving box mechanism pot seedling transplanting machine on the market moves too fast when the picked seedling is collected,which negatively impacts the seedling picking performance.In order to improve the performance,two types of variable speed continuous moving box schemes were designed in this study.The first scheme was to apply a spiral-gear moving box spiral shaft with sine curve characteristics in the box moving mechanism,whereas the second one was to change the circular gear in the moving box into an elliptical gear with a speed shifting transmission mechanism.The working mechanism of the mechanical structure was analyzed,and the kinematic model was established.A dynamic analysis of the slider mechanism was performed.A virtual prototype was established according to agronomic parameters,and the virtual prototype experiments were conducted in ADAMS.The physical prototype and the high-speed photography experiment were performed on the test bench of a transplanting machine frame.The theoretical analysis,virtual prototype and physical prototype test results were consistent,which verified the validity of the theoretical model,virtual prototype and physical prototype and ensured the feasibility of the system.

Theoretical analysis and development of a mechanism with punching device for transplanting potted vegetable seedlings

Several studies have indicated that potted vegetable seedling transplanting technology can greatly improve the ability of vegetable seedlings to resist cold,flood,drought,saline-alkali and pests.The existing transplanting equipment mostly adopts mechanical,electrical and hydraulic integration technologies with a complex structure and a high cost.To address the problems of the complex structure and low efficiency of existing transplanting equipment,a rotary transplanting mechanism for potted vegetable seedlings was developed through configuration analysis and optimization design.Through kinematic analysis of the transplanting mechanism,optimization design software was developed,and the parameters were optimized.A mechanism was developed for picking,transporting,hole punching and transplanting potted vegetable seedlings.The virtual simulation results showed that the maximum error of attitudes of the transplanting arm is less than 1.19°and that of the hole punching shovel is less than 1.7°.In this study,perforation,seedling harvesting and transplanting experiments were conducted through a bench test.The results showed that the specific trajectory and attitude of the potted vegetable seedlings transplanting mechanism conformed to the requirements of potted vegetable seedling transplantation and the success rate of seedling picking was 92.4%,which verified the correctness and feasibility of the rotary potted vegetable seedling transplanting mechanism.

Optimized design and experiment of the three-arm transplanting mechanism for rice potted seedlings

The transplanting arm of two-arm transplanting mechanism is easy to cause seedlings injury and missing due to its faster speed relative to the seedlings.In order to solve the existed problems,a three-arm transplanting mechanism for rice potted seedlings was developed in this study.The developed three-arm transplanting mechanism for rice potted seedling can make the transplanting arm realize special trajectory and attitude through the unequal planetary gear transmission.The kinematic model of three-arm transplanting mechanism for rice potted seedling was established,and the optimal design software was developed.Based on the heuristic optimization algorithm named“parameter guide”,a set of satisfied mechanism parameters required by the rice potted seedling transplanting were obtained.The trajectory and attitude of three-arm transplanting mechanism used for the rice potted seedling were analyzed.Besides,the virtual simulation results were basically consistent with the optimization software results,and the correctness of theoretical analysis and virtual simulation were also verified by each other.When the developed transplanting mechanism picked up the seedling,the velocity of transplanting arm relative to the seedling was reduced by about 30%.The results showed that the injury rate of rice potted seedling transplanting mechanism was 0.04%,the missing rate of seedling was 1.4%,the integrity rate of seedling pot matrix was 96%,and the success rate of picking seedling was 99.92%.

Optimized design and experiments of a rotary-extensive-type flowerpot seedling transplanting mechanism

To realize the mechanization of flowerpot seedling transplanting,a creative mechanism to transplant flowerpot seedlings was designed.The mechanism is based on noncircular gear in combination with a transplanting arm equipped with an extensive seedling pick-up device to transplant the flowerpot seedlings from the growing tray to the flowerpot,which in accordance with the transplanting agronomy requirements.The working principles of a theoretical model and kinematic characteristics of the transplanting mechanism were analyzed.The computer-aided analysis and optimization software based on Visual Basic 6.0 was developed and used to obtain a set of special trajectory and attitude parameters satisfying the transplanting operation requirements.The optimized parameters were used for virtual manufacturing and simulation testing of the transplanting mechanism.The virtual prototype testing results are consistent with the theoretical analysis,verifying the structural design validity and rationality.The high-speed photography was used in a bench test of the transplanting mechanism with“Salvia Splendens”pot seedlings as test samples.The trajectory and attitudes of the theoretical analysis,virtual test,and physical prototype test were essentially identical.The bench test results showed that the success rate was 91.67%for the seedling pick-up device penetrating into the root mass at 35 mm,thus,the quality of the extracting seedling was satisfactory.

Method for generating non-circular gear with addendum modification and its application in transplanting mechanism

With a focus on the design of tooth profiles of non-circular gears with addendum modifications that conform to the given complex transmission ratio curves and based on a series of discrete point sets on the pitch curves,the criteria for tooth profile distortion and undercut in non-circular gears were proposed.With the constraint of no tooth profile distortion and undercut,the addendum modification coefficient was introduced into the calculation of the distorted and undercut segments of the tooth profile of a non-circular gear,and the addendum modification coefficient of each contact point of the non-circular gear was obtained.Based on the generating principle for gear shaping with gear cutters,a theoretical model for calculating the tooth profile of non-circular gears with addendum modification was derived.The cutting and radial feeding motions of the pinion cutter were ignored,and only the meshing motion was considered.The involute tooth profiles of the pinion cutter enveloped the tooth profile of the non-circular gear.3D automatic non-circular gear model generation software was developed,which was a secondary development product of the software UG.A non-circular gear in a rice potted seedling transplanting mechanism was designed,and the transplanter was developed and tested.The test results showed that the designed tooth profile of non-circular gear achieved the variable transmission ratios required by the transplanting mechanism.When the transplanting efficiencies were 140 plants/min,160 plants/min and 180 plants/min,the transplanter completed the rice potted seedling transplanting operation with high quality.