Design and experimentation of crawler tea harvesting machine

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, a tracked self-propelled tea harvesting machine is designed. The machine is composed of a tracked chassis, a picking unit, a collection unit, a tea canopy sensing unit, and a cutter height adaptive adjustment unit, The tracked chassis is designed with a narrow width to accommodate the planting mode of Chinese tea plantations. The tea canopy sensing unit and the height adaptive adjustment unit of the cutting platform allow for real-time adjustment of the picking unit’s height based on the tea canopy’s height, improving the tea production rate of fresh leaves. Kinematic analysis of the reciprocating cutter was conducted. To optimize the parameters of the entire machine, a three-factor, three-level quadratic rotational orthogonal test was established, and regression analysis of the test data was performed using Design Expert. The optimized parameters were: machine speed of 3.170 km/h, crank radius of 18.737 mm, average cutter speed of 0.951 m/s, and processable tea rate of 91.38%. To validate the optimization results, field trials were conducted. The findings demonstrated that the processable tea rate was 91.26%, which closely aligned with the optimized results. This study provides a theoretical reference for the tea harvesting machine in tea plantations on hilly slopes.