Motion Analysis for Vegetable Potted Seedling Pick-Up Mechanism with Double Crank Geared Linkages

The semi-automatic feeding mechanism of vegetable transplanter was nacelle basket type which is available with manual feeding for transplanting vegetable potted seedlings. However, the efficiency is lower to meet the needs. To improve it, a new design of the potted seedling pick-up mechanism with double crank geared five-bar linkages model was expounded for automatic seedling picking. The kinematics model of the pick-up mechanism was established by mathematical analysis method. The influence of the structural parameters on the motion trajectory and relative velocity of the seedling pick-up arm cusp was investigated. The design of optimization objective for picking vegetable potted seedling was proposed. Meanwhile, the optimal parameter combination of the pick-up mechanism was obtained by using MATLAB based on the objective. With it, when the seedlings pot were being pulled out, the path of the seedling pick-up arm inserting was straightly and more perpendicular to potted seedling. Furthermore, the velocity of seedling taking and dropping cusps were relatively lower in order to meet the speeds demand of seedling picking up with seedling feeding in automatic way.