Abstract: Application of vegetable seedling transplanting can improve crop yields and economic benefits effectively.At present，semi-automatic transplanter for vegetables dominates market of China.However，lower transplanting efficiency limits popularization and application of semi-automatic machine.Nowdays，automatic transplanter has been becoming focus of research for its higher working efficiency.Research progress and application situation of automatic transplanter were presented.And charactersistics of main picking mechanism used in automatic transplanting were discussed.Comparing research of automatic transplanter at home and abroad，defects and inadequacies of current domestic seedling auto-picking technology were summarized.Furthermore，some reasonable suggestions were put forward on prospective development for automatic transplanter in China.