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.