Structural Design and Performance Test of Fruit and Vegetable Picking Manipulator

An articulated manipulator with 4-DOF for fruit and vegetable picking was developed aiming at small harvesting space of greenhouse.Three-dimensional model of manipulator was established by SolidWorks software.Dynamics analysis model was set up by the method of Lagrange.Then statics，kinematics and dynamics simulation analysis of the manipulator were carried out by ADAMS and ANSYS software.Statics simulation results showed that maximum stress of manipulator was 8.181 8 MPa and maximum deformation was 0.000 329 11 m，which could meet requirements with reasonable structure design.Kinematics simulation results showed that this manipulator could accurately reach target location and its movement process was smooth.Dynamic simulation results showed that maximum moment of each joint were in safety and reasonable range.In order to further verify rationality of design，performance tests of fruit and vegetable picking manipulator were carried out.Experimental results showed that maximum positioning error of manipulator was ±2.5 mm，average error was ±1.1 mm，and load capacity was within 3 kg.The movement of manipulator was smooth，which could satisfy requirement of fruit and vegetable picking.