Development of single row automatic transplanting device for potted vegetable seedlings

In China,low degree of automation seriously affects the working efficiency and quality in vegetable transplanting.As one of the most important vegetables in China even in the world,tomato was taken as the research object in this study.An automatic single-row transplanting device was designed,based on the statistical analysis of the physical and mechanical properties of tomato seedlings of a typical variety.Based on the technology of mechatronics,the device integrated the functions of transporting seedling tray,automatic seedling extraction and mechanical planting.The kinematics orthogonality solution combined with the dynamic sequence solution method was used to optimize and analyze the kinematic parameters of the automatic seeding mechanism,and the“sickle”trajectory was obtained.According to the position and movement requirement for taking and dropping seedling,the mechanical conditions and the working parameters of key execution parts were obtained by using analytic drawing method to analyze the mechanical condition of seedling collecting mechanism.The transplanting experiment was conducted at room temperature of 25°C,and the age and moisture content of the seedlings were 40 d and 55%,respectively.The results showed that the highest success rate was 92.59%,and the lowest rate of leakage was 23.13%,when the transplanting frequency was 60 plants/min.The lowest success rate was 77.78%,and the highest rate of leakage was 38.75%,when transplanting frequency was 120 plants/min.When the transplanting frequency is between 60-90 plants/min,the device can meet the requirement of high speed transplanting for potted vegetable seedling.

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.

Design and experiment of intelligent sorting and transplanting system for healthy vegetable seedlings

Healthy vegetable seedlings are surviving seedlings with good biological characteristics.Selective planting of healthy seedlings in the mechanized transplanting process can effectively avoid the reduction in yield caused by missed planting.Aiming at the current transplanting machinery that cannot achieve the selective planting of healthy seedlings,a healthy seedling intelligent sorting and transplanting system was proposed.The system consisted of a seedling delivery mechanism,sorting mechanism,photoelectric sensor,image sensor,PLC control system,and computer control system.It can realize automatic transmission of seedling trays,automatically identify the information of healthy seedlings in the trays and selectively transplant them.Also it can reduce the missed planting rate caused by the poor quality of plug seedlings after planting and the lack of seedlings in the hole.A sorting test of plug seedlings was carried out for the age-appropriate pepper plug seedlings cultivated in the factory.The results showed that the system had an average recognition accuracy rate of 89.14%and an average sorting success rate of 93.20%in the process of sorting suitable age pepper plug seedlings.The whole system can identify,sort and transplant the plug seedlings of appropriate age according to healthy information,and effectively avoid missing planting.This research can provide technical support for the intelligent upgrade of transplanting equipment.

Reverse design and tests of vegetable plug seedling pick-up mechanism of planetary gear train with non-circular gears

In the previous research,the seedling pick-up mechanism of the planetary gear train with incomplete eccentric circular gear and non-circular gears for vegetable plug seedlings still has two shortcomings.One is that not enough seedling pick-up depth leads to a low success ratio of seedling pick-up at high rotation speeds,the other is that the smaller seedling pushing angle results in poor seedling pushing effect.Therefore,the reverse design of the seedling pick-up mechanism based on its motion trajectory was carried out.The local trajectory of seedling pick-up and seedling pushing sections was adjusted to obtain the theoretical motion trajectory of the seedling pick-up mechanism.The cubic non-uniform B-spline curve was used to fit the adjusted trajectory.A novel seedling pick-up mechanism of the planetary gear train with non-circular gears was proposed,including three combined non-circular gears,four non-circular gears,one planetary carrier,and two seedling pick-up arms.The reverse design model of the mechanism was established.The analysis and design software of the mechanism was developed to obtain the mechanism parameters meeting design requirements.The virtual prototype of the mechanism was established and its physical prototype was manufactured.Through the virtual motion simulation and high-speed photographic kinematics bench tests of the mechanism,the kinematic model and results of reverse design of the mechanism were verified,with the kinematic performances of the mechanism prototype studied.The seedling pick-up tests of the mechanism were conducted in the laboratory.The success ratios of seedling pick-up were 94.2%,95.6% and 90.2% while the seedling pick-up efficiencies of the mechanism were 60,80 and 100 plants per minute per row,respectively.Besides,the seedling pushing effect was improved mush because of the greater seedling pushing angle.The seedling pick-up mechanism through revise design is of high value to be applied in the practical vegetable plug seedling transplanters.

In-vitro vs in-vivo Inoculation: Screening for Resistance of Australian Rice Genotypes Against Blast Fungus

To assist with rapid screening for rice blast resistance as a precursor in a breeding program, the susceptibility to rice blast of 13 rice genotypes from Australia was evaluated in May to June 2013 using three distinct inoculation methods（spot, filter paper and standard methods） at seedling, vegetative and reproductive stages. The results revealed that the spot and filter paper inoculation methods were successful in discerning susceptibility to the rice blast disease（P ≤ 0.05）. Disease susceptibility declined significantly from the vegetative to reproductive stages. The standard method was conducted at three different stages for pot plants grown inside the mist house. However, low temperatures did not produce disease symptoms except in a few genotypes. Among the 13 rice genotypes screened, AAT9 expressed a highly resistant response, and AAT4, AAT6, AAT10, AAT11, AAT13, AAT17 and AAT18 expressed resistance at various stages. The results will be useful for selecting elite genotypes for disease tolerance where rice blast is prevalent. In addition, the resistant genotypes can serve as a gene pool used in breeding programmes to develop new resistant genotypes.