Design and Experimental Validation of the Profiling Cutting Platform for Tea Harvesting

Hang Zheng, Ning Ren, Tong Fu, Bin Chen, Zhaowei Hu and Guohong Yu ()
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Hang Zheng: Institute of Agricultural Equipment, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China
Ning Ren: Institute of Agricultural Equipment, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China
Tong Fu: School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China
Bin Chen: Institute of Agricultural Equipment, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China
Zhaowei Hu: College of Optical, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
Guohong Yu: Institute of Agricultural Equipment, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: The low quality of mechanized tea harvesting in China’s hilly plantations, often caused by irregular canopy morphology, necessitates improved technology. This study addresses this issue by proposing a contact-based profiling mechanism and a corresponding control method for tea cutting platforms. This cutting platform mainly consists of a canopy profiling mechanism, a tea harvesting unit, a lifting actuator, and a control system, containing a mathematical model correlating the tea canopy pose with sensor signals. Following a theoretical analysis of key components of the profiling device, we determined their structural parameters. Subsequently, a profiling control strategy was formulated, and an automatic control system for the profiling cutting platform was developed. Finally, a prototype was constructed and subjected to experimental validation to assess the dynamic characteristics of its pose adjustment and its profiling-based harvesting performance. The results of this experiment illustrate that after implementing the profiling system, the proportion of time the cutting blade remained in an optimal cutting position increased from 26.5% to 95.0%, an improvement of 68.5%, demonstrating that the system successfully achieves its design objective of the adaptive profiling apparatus in response to variation in canopy morphology. In addition, the integrity rate of harvested tea leaves increased from 50.7% without profiling to 74.6% with profiling, an improvement of 47.1%, which indicates the good performance of this profiling cutting platform. Therefore, this research provides a valuable reference for the design of intelligent tea harvesting machinery for the hilly tea plantations in China.

Keywords: tea harvesting; profiling cutting platform; automatic control; experimental validation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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