Design and experimental study of the end-effector for broccoli harvesting

The end-effector is an important part of the broccoli harvesting robot.Aiming at the physical characteristics of a large broccoli head and thick stem,a spherical cutting tool broccoli harvesting end-effector was designed in this study.First,the physical characteristics of broccoli were tested,and physical parameters such as the broccoli head diameter and stem diameter of broccoli were measured.The maximum cutting force of broccoli stems under different cutting angles was tested.Second,according to the physical characteristics and harvesting process of broccoli,the end-effector was designed,and the mathematical model of kinematics and dynamics was established.Based on the results of dynamic analysis,the end-effector rod was optimized,and the unilateral width of the slider was 40 mm,the length of the connecting rod was 120 mm,and the length of the crank was 42 mm.The mechanism needed an external driving force of 140.54 N to cut the broccoli stem.Therefore,a 32 mm cylinder with a load rate of 50%was selected as the power source.Finally,the feasibility of the broccoli harvesting end-effector was verified by the harvesting test.Experiments showed that the overall harvesting success rate of the end-effector is 93.3%,and the smoothness rate of the stem section is 83.3%.The harvesting performance of the broccoli end-effector was verified.This lays a foundation for agricultural robots to harvest broccoli.

Design of flower transplanting mechanisms based on double planet carrier non-circular gear train with complete rotation kinematic pair

In view of the problems of the existing mechanisms based on 2R open-chain planetary gear train for seedling transplanting,such as the bad tracking flexibility,low positioning accuracy,and high structure design difficulties of the mechanisms based on 3R open-chain planetary gear train for seedling manipulation.In this paper,a transplanting mechanism based on the solution domain synthesis of a 3R open-chain-based complete rotation kinematic pair,a gear train with a single cycle integral rotating pair,is designed.The Burmester curve equation is derived from the given transplanting trajectory and four exact poses corresponding to each other on the rotation center.Then,the open-chain road model of the 3R complete rotation kinematic pair is obtained under the constraint governed by the judgment condition of the hinge integral rotating pair.Meanwhile,combined with our developed in-house optimization software,the solution to the optimal parameters for the transplanting mechanism can be optimized according to the target trajectory.Finally,the feasibility of the design method is verified by transplanting testing,where kale seedlings with ages of about 20 d and heights of about 80-120 mm are used.The experimental results show that the actual motion trajectory of the prototype is basically identical to the theoretical trajectory,validating the feasibility of transplanting mechanism design,parts processing,and test-bed construction.Through the statistical analysis,the average success rate of transplanting is 90.625%,and the reliability of designed mechanism is satisfied.This study provides a promising solution for the seedling transplanting of two-planet scaffold pots.