Design and Simulation Analysis of Seedling Picking Mechanism of Pot Seedling Transplanter

Abstract Aiming at the problems of complicated structure, difficult processing and high cost of transplanting mechanism of pot seedling transplanting machine, this paper develops a kind of crank and rocker type transplanting mechanism. The mechanism consists of transplanting arm, eccentric wheel, connecting rod and cylindrical cam seedling clamp. This paper analyzes the working mechanism of the seedling picking mechanism, and establishes the geometric relations among the components by selecting the appropriate parameters of the seedling picking and releasing points of the crank and rocker mechanism. A set of optimal solutions are solved iteratively by using the software of Matlab. Meanwhile, the cam mechanism used to control the opening and closing of the seedling clamp is designed by using the geometric characteristics of the seedling clamp and the periodic characteristics of the seedling clamp, and the results of Matlab are modeled in SolidWorks and imported into Adams for virtual simulation analysis. The analysis results showed that the seedling clamp could reach the pre-set position to pick and release seedlings smoothly through the movement of the seedling picking mechanism, which verified the correctness of the mathematical model of the seedling picking mechanism.