Design And Experimental Research On The Comb-brush Vibrating Highbush Blueberry Harvester

Blueberry contains a lot of nutrients which is good for human body,such as anthocyanin,protein and organic salt.It has high health and medicinal value.Therefore,the fruit and its related products are popular among the public,and the blueberry related industries in China are developing rapidly.In China,highbush blueberry is the main direction of blueberry breeding and development in the future,but now the harvest method of highbush blueberry is mainly manual,which leads high cost but low efficiency and seriously restricts the upgrading of blueberry industries.To solve the problem,this paper develops a comb-brush vibration type highbush blueberry harvester.The design process of the prototype is introduced in detail,and the analysis is carried out.(1)By referring to the relevant literature of blueberry harvesting machinery and harvesting principle domestic and abroad,the existing prototype and related picking principle were analyzed.Combined with the highbush blueberry planting base,blueberry growth environment,its mechanical and biological characteristics and relevant planting specifications were measured and recorded to determine the structure and the key size.(2)The mechanical model of blueberry picking was established according to different picking methods.The model is analyzed and calculated,and the expression of picking inertia force is obtained.On the basis of the expression,the influence of many factors on fruits picking efficiency and plant damage is analyzed.(3)Combined with the design requirements and relevant parameters,each part of the harvester is introduced.Solid Works software is used to model the harvester,and the operation such as weight measurement,center of gravity position calculation and interference check of the model are completed.The strength and modal analysis of important parts is completed by ANSYS software.(4)The parts are processed and the whole machine is assembled.After the assembly,the prototype is tested.The test results show that the developed prototype proves good trafficability under different road conditions and within 10 degrees.When the walking speed,comb frequency and beating frequency are selected,the picking device works well,and the comb beating device can realize fruit picking request.The comb-brush vibrating highbush blueberry harvester can basically meet the requirements of blueberry harvesting and realize the mechanized harvesting of blueberry,which save a lot of human resources.At the same time,it is found that the problems such as slow steering speed,steep slope and poor road conditions are easy to slip during the experiment.This paper will provide ideas for the optimization and upgrading of the prototype.