Design on fully automated lettuce harvesting，root removal，leaf stripping and bundling four-in-one machine

To address issues of high labor intensity, low operational efficiency, and high costs associated with traditional manual lettuce harvesting, a fully automated integrated machine for lettuce harvesting, root removal, leaf stripping, and bundling（referred to as fully automated lettuce harvester）was designed．To address characteristic of narrow ridge spacing in lettuce cultivation, a small crawler-type split traction mechanism was designed to enable flexible movement during harvesting operations．An adaptive telescopic soil-breaking mechanism automatically adjusted digging depth according to field surface undulations, ensuring intact lettuce root excavation．A flexible variable-diameter clamping and fixed-spacing conveying device realized flexible clamping and fixed-spacing conveying of excavated lettuce．Additionally, an integrated turntable multi-station operation device could perform root removal, leaf stripping, and bundling on harvested lettuce．Experimental results demonstrated that fully automated lettuce harvester effectively achieve integrated operations including harvesting, root removal, leaf stripping, and bundling．