DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTAL OPTIMIZATION OF A CONTINUOUS VIBRATION-BASED LYCIUM BARBARUM L. HARVESTING DEVICE

Compared with manual harvesting of Lycium barbarum, existing large-scale harvesters have achieved a certain degree of efficiency improvement. Nevertheless, their intermittent operation mode remains a bottleneck restricting overall harvesting performance. To address this issue, a continuous vibration-based L. barbarum harvesting device was developed in this study. Plackett–Burman experiments indicated that vibration angle, vibration frequency, and the spacing between the upper and lower vibrating rods were the primary factors affecting the harvesting performance. Further parameter optimization experiments were carried out by considering the harvesting rate of ripe fruits, the mis-harvesting rate of unripe fruits, and the damage rate of ripe fruits. The optimal parameter combination was determined as a vibration angle of 46°, a vibration frequency of 9 Hz, and a spacing of 62 mm between the upper and lower vibrating rods. Based on these parameters, performance verification tests were conducted. The results showed that the harvesting rate of ripe fruits reached 85.40%, the mis-harvesting rate of unripe fruits was 4.61%, and the damage rate of ripe fruits was 3.19%. These findings provide technical and equipment support for the development of continuous mechanized harvesting of L. barbarum.