Title:Design and Test of Auxiliary Harvesting Device of Apple
VOLUME: 15 ISSUE: 1
Author(s):Chao Wu, Yang Wang, Qun Sun, Ying Zhao* and Laigang Zhang
Affiliation:School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng
Keywords:Apple harvest, transmission mechanism, stress analysis, PID algorithm, collision damage, damage analysis.
Abstract:Background: In the production process of apple orchard, the labor needed for apple harvest
accounts about 40% of the whole production process.
Objective: The auxiliary device of apple harvest was designed to improve production efficiency and
reduce labor cost.
Methods: This device was composed of four parts: fruit collecting mechanism, horizontal conveying
mechanism, vertical conveying mechanism and rotary packing mechanism, which assists farmers in
finishing the process from picking to packaging apples. Simulation and fruit damage analyses were
carried out by Solid works, fruit damage included three types: Single collision, Overlapping collision
and Multi-zone collision.
Results: In the experiment, PID algorithm was employed to control device operate accurately. And
when the motor speed were 52 r/min, 56 r/min, 60 r/min, the collection efficiency were 4900 apples/
h, 5300 apples/h, 5700 apples/h and the fruit damage rates were 4%, 5%, 8%.
Conclusion: The experimental results indicated that compared with the manual operation and visual
recognition-based picking robots this device’s production efficiency was improving without increasing
the fruit damage rate.
