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.

Comparison of yield traits in rice among three mechanized planting methods in a rice-wheat rotation system

Understanding the differences in yield traits of rice among pothole seedling of mechanical transplanting （PSMT）, carpet seedling of mechanical transplanting （CSMT） and mechanical direct seeding （MDS） is of great importance not only for rice scientists but also for rice farmers to develop a high-yield production system under mechanical conditions in a rice-wheat rotation system. However, such traits are yet to be studied among rice varieties ofjaponica-indica hybrid rice （JIHR）,japonica conventional rice （JCR） and indica hybrid rice （IHR）. Field experiments were conducted in 2014 and 2015, where six cultivars of the three rice types JIHR, JCR and IHR were grown individually with PSMT, CSMT and MDS methods, under respective managements for each method to achieve the maximum attainable yield. Results showed that （i） the PSMT significantly increased grain yield of JIHR by 22.0 and 7.1%, of JCR by 15.6 and 3.7% and of I HR by 22.5 and 7.4%, compared to MDS and CSMT on average across the two years, respectively. The highest yield was produced by the combination of JIHR and PSMT; （ii） high yield under PSMT was mainly attributed to large sink capacity and high-efficient dry matter accumulation. With sufficient panicles per hectare, the increase of spikelet number per panicle, especially the increase in spikelet number of the secondary rachis-branches was determined to be the optimal approach for developing a large sink capacity for rice under PSMT. The optimal tillers development, large leaf area index at heading stage, and high leaf area duration, crop growth rate and net assimilation rate during grain-filling phase could be the cause of sufficient dry matter accumulation for rice under PSMT; （iii） moreover, the PSMT favored plant growth as well as enriched the stems plus sheaths during grain-filling phase, as compared with CSMT and MDS. These results suggest that PSMT may be an alternative approach to increasing grain yield in a rice-wheat rotation system in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China.

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.

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.

Design and tests of a rotary plug seedling pick-up mechanism for vegetable automatic transplanter

The rotary plug seedling pick-up mechanism for vegetable automatic transplanter is the technical bottleneck to improve the mechanization level of vegetable planting in China.In order to solve the problems of rotary seedling pick-up mechanism proposed in previous study,such as low success ratio of seedling pick-up at high speed,and interference between the seedling bowl and the end of the other seedling pick-up arm,a novel kind of rotary seedling pick-up mechanism of planetary gear train with combined type gears of incomplete denatured-eccentric-circular and non-circular gears was proposed.Through kinematic analysis of the seedling pick-up mechanism,the kinematics model was established.The computer-aided analysis and optimization software with human-computer interaction method was developed to realize parameters optimization of the seedling pick-up mechanism.Three-dimensional parametric design system of seedling pick-up mechanisms with combined non-circular gear transmission was developed for mechanism virtual simulation to verify the correctness of theoretical model and design results of the mechanism.The physical prototype of the mechanism was manufactured,and high-speed camera kinematics tests of the mechanism were conducted in the laboratory to study its kinematic characteristics.Laboratory seedling pick-up tests were carried out.The mechanism has the success ratio of seedling pick-up 96.3%without interference during seedling transporting when the rotation speed of the mechanism is 50 r/min and the seedling transplanting efficiency is 100 plants/min per row,showing that the novel mechanism has better working performance than the original one and could be applied in vegetable plug seedling transplanter.

Design and experimental study of a planetary gearing mechanism based on twice unequal amplitude transmission ratio

To obtain the optimal seedling taking trajectory,this study proposed the adjustment of the total transmission ratio curve by using human-computer interaction.On the basis of this design method,a planetary non-circular gear mechanism was designed that can realize the twice unequal amplitude transmission ratio to meet the seedling harvesting requirements.The cubic non-uniform B-spline curve was used to fit the twice unequal amplitude transmission ratio curve,and the transmission ratio was freely distributed in two levels.The seedling pick-up mechanism was designed by controlling the seedling taking track and the corresponding attitude directly through the local section of the total transmission ratio,and the gear pitch curve was directly controlled by the transmission ratio.The kinematics model of the seedling pick-up mechanism was also established.Furthermore,the influence of the total transmission ratio on the seedling picking track,the ratio of the wave crest to the amplitude,and the mechanism parameters were discussed.A human-computer interactive optimization software was developed using Matlab,and a set of optimal parameters for the seedling pick-up mechanism was obtained to meet the transplanting requirements.By using the Adams software,the virtual prototype simulation of the seedling pick-up mechanism was completed,and the idle experiment for the track and attitude of the prototype was conducted through high-speed camera technology.The theoretical,simulated,and experimental trajectories were consistent with each other.Results revealed that the success rate of the seedling picking exceeded 90%when the rotation speeds were 40 r/min,50 r/min,and 60 r/min,and the qualified rate of the matrix decreased with the increase in rotating speed.Moreover,the number of damaged plants increased with the increase in rotating speed.The experimental results showed that the seedling pick-up mechanism designed using the proposed method demonstrated a good effect and met the required seedling picking performance.