Design and Experimentation of Comb-Spiral Impact Harvesting Device for Camellia oleifera Fruit

Fengxin Yan (), Yaoyao Zhu, Xujie Li, Yu Zhang, Komil Astanakulov and Naimov Alisher
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Fengxin Yan: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China
Yaoyao Zhu: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China
Xujie Li: School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Yu Zhang: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China
Komil Astanakulov: Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers, National Research University, Tashkent 100000, Uzbekistan
Naimov Alisher: Institute of Botany, Plant Physiology and Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, Dushanbe 735700, Tajikistan

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-29

Abstract: Camellia oleifera is one of the four largest woody oil species in the world, with more than 5 million hectares planted in China alone. Reducing bud damage and improving harvesting net rate and efficiency have become the key challenges to mechanized harvesting of Camellia oleifera fruits. This paper presents a novel comb-spiral impact harvesting device primarily composed of four parts, which are lifting mechanism, picking mechanism, rotating mechanism, and tracked chassis. The workspace of the four-degree-of-freedom lifting mechanism was simulated, and the harvesting reachable area was maximized using MATLAB R2021a software. The picking mechanism, which includes dozens of spirally arranged impact pillars, achieves high harvesting efficiency through impacting, brushing, and dragging, while maintaining a low bud shedding rate. The rotary mechanism provides effective harvesting actions, and the tracked chassis guarantees free movement of the equipment. Simulation experiments and field validation experiments indicate that optimal performance can be achieved when the brushing speed is set to 21.45 r/min, the picking finger speed is set to 341.27 r/min, and the picking device tilt angle is set to 1.0°. With these parameters, the harvesting quantity of Camellia oleifera fruits is 119.75 kg/h, fruit shedding rate 92.30%, and bud shedding rate as low as 9.16%. This new model for fruit shedding and the comb-spiral impact harvesting principle shows promise as a mechanized harvesting solution for nut-like fruits.

Keywords: comb-spiral impact finger; kinematic analysis; Camellia oleifera fruit; parameter optimization; harvesting device (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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