PROFILING DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF END-EFFECTOR FOR PINEAPPLE EYE REMOVAL

To address the issues of high labor intensity, low efficiency, and excessive flesh loss in pineapple eye removal, a design scheme of pineapple eye removal end-effector based on mechanical arm was proposed according to the analysis results of pineapple eye morphological characteristics. Based on the experimental determination of the elastic modulus of the pineapple fruit eye area the design of the end-effector mechanism for pineapple eye removal, kinematic and dynamic simulation analysis, and finite element optimization design of the eye removal gripper were carried out. Finally, a pineapple eye removal device was built for experimental verification. The simulation results indicated that the optimal length of the driving link of the pineapple eye removal end-effector mechanism was 23 mm. The eye removal trajectory of the gripper tip was highly consistent with the morphological contours of pineapple eyes. The maximum contact forces between gears and at the gripper-pineapple interface reached 33.13 N and 78.64 N, respectively. working conditions, the maximum stress and deformation at the gripper tip were measured as 532.15 MPa and 0.17 mm, revealing a significant stress concentration phenomenon. After structural optimization, the maximum stress and deformation were reduced to 133.13 MPa and 0.12 mm, with reduction rates of approximately 75% and 29.4%, respectively. These improvements effectively enhanced the structural stress distribution and deformation behavior, meeting the material strength requirements. The experimental results showed that pineapple eye removal operations were efficiently completed by the end-effector mechanism, with an eye removal success rate of 98%. The research results provide theoretical and technical reference for the development of pineapple automatic processing equipment.