Design and Evaluation of a Mechanical Floor-Standing Jujube Picker

Abstract

The poor adaptability of existing harvesting machinery and low work efficiency is observed due to the low-level mechanized harvesting of Xinjiang jujube orchards. A mechanical floor-standing jujube picker was designed on the basis of the characteristics of the high fruit drop of the Xinjiang jujube harvest period. The machine can pick up the jujubes, which have been manually collected into strips on the ground. The structure and working parameters of the pickup device are determined in accordance with the pickup principle. The conditions for satisfying the picking operation were analyzed, and the range of motion speed ratio parameters to meet the pickup operation was obtained. Furthermore, the contact process of jujubes on the conveying and separating device was analyzed and studied; the factors affecting the collision damage and conveying the balance of jujubes were analyzed; and the basic structural parameters of the conveying and separating devices were determined. A mechanical floor-standing jujube picker was also fabricated for trial. A three-factor and three-level Box– Behnken test was performed by taking the forward speed of the machine, the speed of the strip brush roller shaft, and the hole pitch height of the profiling rod as factors, and the pickup, breakage, and impurity rates of jujubes as indicators. Results show that when the forward speed of the machine was 0.3 m·s−1, the speed of the strip brush roller shaft was 53 rpm and the hole pitch height of the profiling rod was 60 mm. The jujube pickup rate of the machine was 92.11%, the breakage rate was 2.07%, and the impurity rate was 4.15%. The relative error with the prediction model was less than 8%. Thus, the model is reliable and meets the operational requirements. This study can provide a reference for the mechanical floor-standing jujube picker.