Abstract
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. Keywords: vegetable automatic transplanter, rotary seedling pick-up mechanism, incomplete denatured-eccentric-circular gear, kinematic analysis, parametric design DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20201303.5647 Citation: Ye B L, Zeng G J, Deng B, Yang C L, Liu J K, Yu G H. Design and tests of a rotary plug seedling pick-up mechanism for vegetable automatic transplanter. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2020; 13(3): 70–78.
Highlights
China is the largest vegetables producer and consumer in the world, and the planting areas and yields of vegetable in China account for about 40% and 50% of the world's total, respectively
To accelerate the research of vegetable plug seedling transplanter is very conducive to the mechanization level promotion of dryland economic plant and the rapid development of its industry, which plays an important role in promoting farmers’ income and rural economic transformation[1]
Automatic transplanting mechanism is the core working part that determines the quality and efficiency of transplanting machine, in which the seedling planting mechanism has been developed relatively mature, and the seedling pick-up mechanism is the technical bottleneck that restricts the development of automatic transplanting machine, so it becomes the research and development trend and focus for automatic transplanter[3,4,5]
Summary
China is the largest vegetables producer and consumer in the world, and the planting areas and yields of vegetable in China account for about 40% and 50% of the world's total, respectively. Transplanting process of seedling pick-up and planting, which has the advantages of good transplanting quality, high transplanting efficiency and low production cost[2]. Ye B L, et al Design and tests of a rotary plug seedling pick-up mechanism for vegetable automatic transplanter. In General, the transplanting machines designed by European and American countries have high success ratio of seedling pick-up and are suitable for transplanting in large fields, but they mostly have the problems of complicate structure and high prices, and are difficult to be fully used in China. There is still no efficient seedling pick-up mechanism applied in the automatic transplanting machine for dryland plug seedlings, suitable for large-scale promotion and application of plug seedling transplanting model in China. Some other studies on the mechanism were conducted, including development of three-dimentional parametric design system, virtual motion simulation, high-speed camera kinematics tests and seedling pick-up tests
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