Design of Vegetable Pot Seedling Pick‑up Mechanism with Planetary Gear Train

It has been challenging to design seedling pick-up mechanism based on given key points and trajectories,because it involves dimensional synthesis and rod length optimization.In this paper,the dimensional synthesis of seedling pickup mechanism with planetary gear train was studied based on the data of given key points and the trajectory of the endpoint of seedling pick-up mechanism.Given the positions and orientations requirements of the five key points,the study first conducted a dimensional synthesis of the linkage size and center of rotation.The next steps were to select a reasonable solution and optimize the data values based on the ideal seedling trajectory.The link motion was driven by the planetary gear train of the two-stage gear.Four pitch curves of noncircular gears were obtained by calculating and distributing the transmission ratio according to the data.For the pitch curve with two convex points,the tooth profile design method of incomplete noncircular gear was applied.The seedling pick-up mechanism was tested by a virtual prototype and a physical prototype designed with the obtained parameter values.The results were consistent with the theoretical design requirements,confirming that the mechanism meets the expected requirements for picking seedlings up.This paper presents a new design method of vegetable pot seedling pick-up mechanism for an automatic vegetable transplanter.

Bifurcation and chaos study on transverse-torsional coupled 2K-H planetary gear train with multiple clearances

A new non-linear transverse-torsional coupled model was proposed for 2K-H planetary gear train, and gear's geometric eccentricity error, comprehensive transmission error, time-varying meshing stiffness, sun-planet and planet-ring gear pair's backlashes and sun gear's bearing clearance were taken into consideration. The solution of differential governing equation of motion was solved by applying variable step-size Runge-Kutta numerical integration method. The system motion state was investigated systematically and qualitatively, and exhibited diverse characteristics of bifurcation and chaos as well as non-linear behavior under different bifurcation parameters including meshing frequency, sun-planet backlash, planet-ring backlash and sun gear's bearing clearance. Analysis results show that the increasing damping could suppress the region of chaotic motion and improve the system's stability significantly. The route of crisis to chaotic motion was observed under the bifurcation parameter of meshing frequency. However, the routes of period doubling and crisis to chaos were identified under the bifurcation parameter of sun-planet backlash; besides, several different types of routes to chaos were observed and coexisted under the bifurcation parameter of planet-ring backlash including period doubling, Hopf bifurcation, 3T-periodic channel and crisis. Additionally, planet-ring backlash generated a strong coupling effect to system's non-linear behavior while the sun gear's bearing clearance produced weak coupling effect. Finally, quasi-periodic motion could be found under all above–mentioned bifurcation parameters and closely associated with the 3T-periodic motion.

Stability of motion state and bifurcation properties of planetary gear train

A nonlinear lateral-torsional coupled vibration model of a planetary gear system was established by taking transmission errors,time varying meshing stiffness and multiple gear backlashes into account.The bifurcation diagram of the system's motion state with rotational speed of sun gear was conducted through four steps.As a bifurcation parameter,the effect of rotational speed on the bifurcation properties of the system was assessed.The study results reveal that periodic motion is the main motion state of planetary gear train in low speed region when ns<2 350 r/min,but chaos motion state is dominant in high speed region when ns>2 350 r/min,The way of periodic motion to chaos is doubling bifurcation.There are two kinds of unstable modes and nine unstable regions in the speed region when 1 000 r/min<ns<3 000 r/min.

Dynamic load sharing behavior of transverse-torsional coupled planetary gear train with multiple clearances

A new nonlinear transverse-torsional coupled model with backlash and bearing clearance was proposed for planetary gear set. Meanwhile, sun gear and planet's eccentricity errors, static transmission error, and time-varying meshing stiffness were taken into consideration. The differential governing equations of motion were solved by employing variable step-size Rung-Kutta numerical integration method. The behavior of dynamic load sharing characteristics affected by the system parameters including input rate, sun gear's supporting stiffness and eccentricity error, planet's eccentricity error, sun gear's bearing clearance, backlashes of sun-planet and planet-ring meshes were investigated qualitatively and systematically. Some theoretical results are summarized at last which extend the current understanding of the dynamic load sharing behavior of planet gear train, enrich the related literature and provide references for the design of planetary gear train.

Efficiency Evaluation of Continuously Variable Transmissions Including a Planetary Gear Train

With their advantages, continuously variable transmissions have gained more popularity in the last decade by their use in mechanical transmission systems. The present paper aims to analysis the efficiency of the transmission based on the mechanical efficiency of the planetary gear train integrated in such transmission. In this analysis, we consider the mechanical efficiency of the transmission has been determined considering how the efficiency of the CVT members changes as a function of the operating conditions. The efficiency of the planetary gear train as a function of the configuration, speeds in his three input/output shafts, and also with respect to the power flow type. Results are compared with those obtained from other methods performance evaluation of the transmission, available in the literature.

Method for Selecting the Optimal Solution for the Design of the Gear Train

Some researchers in mechanical engineering have developed systems for the design of gear transmission boxes, but almost no calculation methods exist for widespread synthesis. In this article, we outline methods for automatic determination of toothed helical gear trains and the selection criteria for the optimal choice of gear trains. In this work two methods were applied. As first design to use an expert system for the design and then optimize the design that is why we used Kappa PC and Catia for CAD.

Automatic Scallion Seedling Feeding Mechanism with an Asymmetrical High-order Transmission Gear Train

The current automatic scallion-transplanting machine is a complicated mechanism composed of two linkage mechanisms and two band carriers.It delivers seedlings ine ciently because of the movement limitations of the linkage mechanism.This paper proposes a new high-order non-circular gear train for an automatic scallion-seedling feeding mechanism.The proposed gear train has an asymmetrical transmission ratio;i.e.,its transmission ratio varies.This allows the mechanism’s execution component to move in a long displacement and rotate in a large rotation angle.The long displacement enables the execution component to reach the designed working position,and the large rotation angle allows it to feed a scallion in the required pose.A mathematical model for calculating the asymmetrical transmission ratio was established according to the closure requirements and the full-cycle motion of the driven gear pitch curve.Then,the parameter-design model of the new seedling-feeding mechanism was established,based on precise pose points and trajectory-shape control points.Moreover,an aided-design program was developed to obtain the parameter-solution domain of the scallion-seedling feeding mechanism.The mechanism parameters,which met the seedling-feeding function,were optimized to determine the transmission ratio,using a program and a kinematic simulation.Finally,a prototype of the mechanism was produced,and a seedling-feeding experiment was carried out.One-thousand seedlings were tested at a rate of 100 seedlings per minute,and the statistical success rate was 93.4%.Thus,the automatic scallion-seedling feeding mechanism significantly improves the e ciency of automatically transplanting scallions.

Translational - torsional coupled model based nonlinear dynamic analysis of an NGW planetary gear train

This paper aims to investigate the nonlinear dynamic behaviors of an NGW planetary gear train with multi-clearances and manufacturing/assembling errors. For this purpose, an analytical translational- torsional coupled dynamic model is developed considering the effects of time-varying stiffness, gear backlashes and component errors. Based on the proposed model, the nonlinear differential equations of motion are derived and solved iteratively by the Runge-Kutta method. An NGW planetary gear reducer with three planets is taken as an example to analyze the effects of nonlinear factors. The results indicate that the backlashes induce complicated nonlinear dynamic behaviors in the gear train. With the increment of the backlashes, the gear system has experienced periodic responses, quasi-periodic response and chaos responses in sequence. When the planetary gear system is in a chaotic motion state, the vibration amplitude increases sharply, causing severe vibration and noise. The present study provides a fundamental basis for design and parameter optimization of NGW planetary gear trains.

Design and Experiment of Non-circular Combined Gear Train Beating-up Mechanism

The most important performance of a beating-up mechanism is that the dwelling time of the sley must ensure the completion of the weft insertion. To meet this requirement, a new non-circular combined gear train beating-up mechanism which is composed of two-stage planetary gear trains is proposed. The first-stage is a Fourier planetary gear train and the second-stage is a non-circular planetary gear train. For designing of this new mechanism, the ideal kinematic equations of the sley are constructed first. Then the kinematic model of the first-stage Fourier planetary gear train is established and the reverse solution for the pitch curves of the second-stage non-circular gears is deduced. With a computer-aided design program, the influences of several important parameters on the pitch curves of the second-stage non-circular gears are analyzed, and a set of preferable structural parameters are obtained. Finally, a test bed of this mechanism is developed and the experimental results show that this new beating-up mechanism can achieve the designed dwelling time, namely it can meet the requirements of beating-up process.

Dynamic characteristics and sensitivities analysis of a power turret gear train

The dynamic transmission characteristics and the sensitivities of the three stage idler gear system of the new NC power turret are studied in the paper. Considering the strongly nonlinear factors such as the periodically time-varying mesh stiffness, the nonlinear tooth backlash, the lump-parameter model of the gear system is developed with one rotational and two translational freedoms of each gear. The eigen-values and eigenvectors are derived and analyzed on the basis of the real modal theory. The sensitivities of natural frequencies to design parameters including supporting and meshing stiffnesses, gear masses, and moments of inertia by the direct differential method are also calculated. The results show the quantitative and qualitative impact of the parameters to the natural characteristics of the gear system. Furthermore, the periodic steady state solutions are obtained by the numerical approach based on the nonlinear model. These results are employed to gain insights into the primary controlling parameters, to forecast the severity of the dynamic response, and to assess the acceptability of the gear design.

Influence of Structural Aspects on the Generation Process in Planetary Gear Trains

Structural and rotational isomorphism in planetary Gear Trains (PGTs), is tested by Hamming number method. Symmetry in PGTs can be determined from the same Hamming matrix. Bearing of the structural property like symmetry in PGTs is studied and is used to evaluate its influence on generation of PGTs.

Optimization design and experiment of the variable differential gear train planting mechanism

In order to improve the adaptability of the planting mechanism for different plant spacings,a variable differential gear train planting mechanism based on precise pose and trajectory control was proposed by combining the open chain 2R rod group and the variable differential gear train.According to the pose requirements of receiving seedling point,transporting seedling point and planting point,three precise pose points of constrained planting trajectory were determined.Through the three-position motion generation structural synthesis method,combined with computer-aided optimization design software,a set of mechanism parameters that meet the planting requirements were optimized.Based on the optimized mechanism parameters,by only changing the coordinates of two trajectory shape control points,three planting trajectories with key point position information adapted to 300 mm,400 mm and 500 mm plant spacing were obtained by interpolation,and three pairs of total transmission ratio of three groups of variable differential gear trains were calculated.When distributing the total transmission ratio of the mechanism,the fixed axis gear train and the differential gear train are combined.The fixed axis gear train included a pair of non-circular gear pairs and a pair of positive gear pairs,which were convenient for disassembly and assembly.The former drives the sun gear at variable speed,and the latter drives the planet carrier at uniform speed.Based on this structure,the transmission ratio of the positive gear pair is-1,and the transmission ratio of the differential gear train is 0.5.The sub-transmission ratio of the single-stage non-circular gear pair was calculated and the pitch curves of three pairs of noncircular gears were solved.Three pairs of non-circular gear pairs with different transmission ratios were replaced in turn and three sets of planting mechanisms were modeled in three dimensions.The virtual prototype motion simulation was completed by ADAMS software,and the physical prototype was built for vegetable pot seedling planting test.The theoretical solution was consistent with the attitude and trajectory of the actual test.When the test sample size was 100 plants,the actual average plant spacing was measured to be 303 mm,402 mm,and 503 mm,with errors of 1.3%,1.25%,and 1.88%.The width of the moving hole was 72 mm,70 mm,and 71 mm,and the planting success rate were 94%,96%,and 95%.The test results verified the correctness of the optimization design results of the mechanism,indicating that the variable differential gear train planting mechanism can adapt to a variety of plant spacing and has good planting effect.

Research on Instantaneous Angular Speed Signal Separation Method for Planetary Gear Fault Diagnosis

Planetary gear train is a critical transmission component in large equipment such as helicopters and wind turbines. Conducting damage perception of planetary gear trains is of great significance for the safe operation of equipment. Existing methods for damage perception of planetary gear trains mainly rely on linear vibration analysis. However, these methods based on linear vibration signal analysis face challenges such as rich vibration sources, complex signal coupling and modulation mechanisms, significant influence of transmission paths, and difficulties in separating damage information. This paper proposes a method for separating instantaneous angular speed (IAS) signals for planetary gear fault diagnosis. Firstly, this method obtains encoder pulse signals through a built-in encoder. Based on this, it calculates the IAS signals using the Hilbert transform, and obtains the time-domain synchronous average signal of the IAS of the planetary gear through time-domain synchronous averaging technology, thus realizing the fault diagnosis of the planetary gear train. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the calculated IAS signals, demonstrating that the time-domain synchronous averaging technology can highlight impact characteristics, effectively separate and extract fault impacts, greatly reduce the testing cost of experiments, and provide an effective tool for the fault diagnosis of planetary gear trains.

Optimization design and test of rice plug seedling transplanting mechanism of planetary gear train with incomplete eccentric circular gear and non-circular gears

In order to solve the problem of the high-speed mechanized transplanting of rice plug seedlings,the design requirements of transplanting mechanism for rice plug seedlings were analyzed and a kind of rice plug seedling transplanting mechanism of planetary gear train based on the drive with incomplete eccentric circular gear and non-circular gears was designed innovatively.The laboratory kinematics was examined.The working principle of the transplanting mechanism for rice plug seedlings was studied,kinematics analysis of the transplanting mechanism was carried out and its kinematic model was set up.A human-computer interaction optimization method was used to optimize the parameters of the transplanting mechanism.The computer aided analysis and optimization software of the transplanting mechanism based on Visual Basic 6.0 was developed.Through analyzing the influence of design variables on the optimization objectives of the transplanting mechanism,a set of parameters of the transplanting mechanism which meet the requirements of transplanting trajectory and posture for transplanting rice seedlings were obtained by means of human-computer interaction.The structure of the transplanting mechanism was designed according to this set of parameters,and its virtual prototype and physical prototype were set up and manufactured,respectively.The kinematic simulation test and high-speed photography kinematic test of the transplanting mechanism were conducted to obtain its kinematic performances,such as transplanting trajectory and posture.The results of bench test,simulation analysis and theoretical analysis were almost in agreement,which verified the correctness of the theoretical model and design results of the transplanting mechanism,indicating that the optimized transplanting mechanism can satisfy the requirements of transplanting rice seedlings and be applied in the rice plug seedling transplanter.

Analytical geometry method of planetary gear trains

This paper presents an analytical geometry method for kinematics and efficiency of planetary gear trains (PGTs). The novel method which is capable of evolution and contrast analysis of mechanism kinematics, can be applied to any typical one-and two-degree-of-freedom plane PGTs containing any number of simple, compound or complex-compound planetary gear sets. The efficiency analysis of this method features a systematized and programmed process and its independence of the speed ratio. The primary contribution of this work lies in the integration of quantitative calculation, qualitative evolution and comparative analysis of kinematics of PGTs into one diagram, and in the integration of kinematics and efficiency analysis into a single method system. First, the analytical geometry method is defined, its basic properties are given, and the systematization procedure to perform kinematic analysis is demonstrated. As an application, analytical geometry diagrams of common PGTs are exhibited in the form of a list, whose kinematic characteristics and general evolution tendency are discussed. Then, with the mapping of PGTs onto the angular speed plane, the efficiency formula of analytical geometry, which has an extremely concise form, and a simple method for power flow estimation are put forward. Moreover, a general procedure is provided to analyze the efficiency and power flow. Finally, four numerical examples including a complicated eleven-link differential PGTs are given to illustrate the simpleness and intuitiveness of the analytical geometry method.

Design of clamping-pot-type planetary gear train transplanting mechanism for rice wide-narrow-row planting

To design a clamping-pot-type wide-narrow-row pot seedling transplanting(WPST)mechanism with desired spatial beak-shaped trajectory and working posture,a new design method of planetary gear train transplanting mechanism(PGTM)with non-circular gears based on several key spatial poses(position and posture)was proposed.The PGTM was simplified to a spatial open-loop chain with two-revolute(2R)joints.The geometric constraint equations containing only the structural parameters of the chain were then established on the basis of the three key spatial poses,and the homotopy algorithm was used to obtain all the required parameters of the mechanism.In accordance with the parameters obtained,the relative angular displacement relation between the planet carrier and the transplanting arm was optimized,the trajectory of the mechanism was replayed,and the total transmission ratio was determined.The degree of freedom of the spatial 2R mechanism was reduced by attaching to the unequal gear pair,and the transmission ratio was distributed in accordance with the gear type to realize the design of a non-circular gear pitch curve.Lastly,a clamping-pot-type PGTM for rice WPST driven by the combination of planar non-circular and non-conical gears was designed,and virtual simulation and prototype test were conducted.Results showed that the simulation and prototype test trajectories were consistent with the desired trajectory.Under the operating speeds of 50 r/min and 90 r/min,the success rates of seedling picking were 95.32%and 90.15%,respectively,which verified the feasibility of the theoretical method.This method could provide a reference for the design of a spatial PGTM with nonuniform transmission.

A multi-criteria fusion feature selection algorithm for fault diagnosis of helicopter planetary gear train

Planetary gear train is a prominent component of helicopter transmission system and its health is of great significance for the flight safety of the helicopter.During health condition monitoring,the selection of a fault sensitive feature subset is meaningful for fault diagnosis of helicopter planetary gear train.According to actual situation,this paper proposed a multi-criteria fusion feature selection algorithm (MCFFSA) to identify an optimal feature subset from the highdimensional original feature space.In MCFFSA,a fault feature set of multiple domains,including time domain,frequency domain and wavelet domain,is first extracted from the raw vibration dataset.Four targeted criteria are then fused by multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D) to find Proto-efficient subsets,wherein two criteria for measuring diagnostic performance are assessed by sparse Bayesian extreme learning machine (SBELM).Further,Fmeasure is adopted to identify the optimal feature subset,which was employed for subsequent fault diagnosis.The effectiveness of MCFFSA is validated through six fault recognition datasets from a real helicopter transmission platform.The experimental results illustrate the superiority of combination of MOEA/D and SBELM in MCFFSA,and comparative analysis demonstrates that the optimal feature subset provided by MCFFSA can achieve a better diagnosis performance than other algorithms.

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.

Study of utilizing differential gear train to achieve hybrid mechanism of mechanical press

The problems of hybrid input of mechanical press are studied in this paper, with differential gear train as transmission mechanism. It is proposed that “adjust-able-speed amplitude” or “differential-speed ratio” is the important parameters for the hybrid input mechanism. It not only defines the amplitude of the adjustable speed, but also determines the ratio of the power of the servomotor to the power of the conventional motor. The calculating equations of the ratio of transmission in all axes, the power of two motors, and the working load distribution are deduced. The two kinds of driving schemes are put forward that the servomotor and the conven-tional motor simultaneously drive and the servomotor and the conventional motor separately drive. The calculating results demonstrate that the latter scheme can use much lower power of the servomotor, so this scheme makes manufacture and use cost much lower. The latter scheme proposes a feasible way to apply the hybrid mechanism of mechanical press in practice engineering.

应用滑动轴承的风电齿轮箱行星轮系动力学建模及解耦方法

在行星轮系动力学建模中,常以非线性油膜力或线性刚度-阻尼形式考虑其对系统动力学特性的影响,前者仿真精度高但计算成本也高,后者计算效率高却忽略了油膜力和轴颈-轴套偏心量的时变性,仿真精度有限。为此,以2MW级风电齿轮箱为研究对象,建立滑动轴承时变线性刚度-阻尼模型,提出计入轴颈-轴套时变偏心量的滑动轴承附加偏心修正力计算方法;利用行星架销轴-行星轮变形协调关系,将时变线性刚度-阻尼模型与附加偏心修正力进行耦合;建立应用滑动轴承的风电齿轮箱行星轮系动力学模型,对比了工况和轴承参数对模型计算精度与系统动态响应的影响,并通过试验加以验证。研究结果表明,齿轮副动态啮合力波动会使滑动轴承刚度-阻尼系数和附加偏心修正力产生周期性变化;在稳定和瞬态工况下,提出的模型可以很好地预测系统响应,尤其是行星轮振动响应;减小滑动轴承宽径比与间隙、增大输入转矩可以改善系统均载性能。