Agriculture (Dec 2023)

Study on the Method and Mechanism of Seedling Picking for Pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i> L.) Plug Seedlings

  • Maile Zhou,
  • Hao Sun,
  • Xin Xu,
  • Jiajia Yang,
  • Guibin Wang,
  • Zhaoxiang Wei,
  • Tingbo Xu,
  • Jianjun Yin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14010011
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
p. 11

Abstract

Read online

To better meet the requirements of mechanized transplanting of pepper plug seedlings, this study explores the seedling picking mechanism of a fully automatic pepper transplanting machine. It introduces a novel “eagle beak” type trajectory for seedling picking and designs a probe-type mechanism for pepper plug seedling retrieval. We establish a kinematic theoretical model and delineate the composition and operational principles of this probe-type mechanism. Additionally, we develop an auxiliary optimization software tailored based on Visual Basic 6.0 visual programming software for this mechanism. It employs a blend of manual fine-tuning and a “parameter guidance” optimization algorithm, enabling the determination of 11 optimal target parameters. Our comparative analysis between the theoretical model, optimization software, and high-speed camera experiments reveals a strong correlation in the motion trajectories, and the maximum error of the pose angle is 1.2°. To validate the mechanism’s design, we conducted a seedling retrieval experiment. In this test, the success rates of the seedling harvesting mechanism at speeds of 30, 40, and 50 r/min were 96.4%, 94.3%, and 91.4%, respectively, thus demonstrating its practical feasibility.

Keywords