Design of a Buffered Longitudinal Vibratory Picking Mechanism for Berry Shrub Fruits

Highlights A spring buffering system was added to a longitudinal vibration picking mechanism for berry shrub fruits. Vibration models of the picking part and side branch were established to obtain the vibration relationship. Blueberry picking experiments were conducted to verify the performance of the picking mechanism. Abstract. Current berry shrub picking mechanisms are generally rigid structures, which can easily cause the mechanism to jam and produce rigid impacts, damaging the berry shrub branches. In view of this situation, a longitudinal vibratory picking mechanism for berry shrub fruits is proposed in this study with a spring system added to provide a buffering effect. Vibration models were established for the picking part and for the berry shrub side branch, and analysis was performed to obtain the vibration relationships. Using blueberry as an example, suitable parameters were determined through calculation and then used in blueberry picking experiments with a prototype of the picking mechanism. The experiments verified that the vibration frequency calculated with the vibration relationships can meet the requirements for picking, and the performance of the longitudinal vibratory picking mechanism for berry shrub fruits was verified.