Design and Experiment of a Handheld Vibration Harvesting Device for Camellia oleifera Fruits

To address the challenges of inefficient Camellia oleifera fruits harvesting in hilly and mountainous regions due to the difficulty of using large machinery, a handheld vibration harvesting device for Camellia oleifera fruits was designed. Based on the vibration-induced detachment process of Camellia oleifera fruits, a single-pendulum dynamic model of the “fruit-branch” system was established and solved to calculate the tangential acceleration required for fruit detachment. The key factors influencing harvesting efficiency were identified as vibration frequency, amplitude, height, and duration. Using ANSYS, modal response and harmonic response analyses were conducted on a 3D model of the Camellia oleifera tree to determine the operational parameters ensuring branch acceleration meets the fruit detachment. Furthermore, a rigid-flexible coupling simulation system integrating the harvesting device and Camellia oleifera tree was developed on the ADAMS. This analysis revealed the variation patterns of branch acceleration with respect to vibration frequency and clamping height, thereby validating the rationality of the dynamic model and the feasibility of the device. Finally, an orthogonal experiment was designed using Design-Expert 13, and multi-objective optimization analysis was performed on the device’s working parameters based on the experimental data. The aforementioned research identified the optimal working parameter combination and actual harvesting performance of the handheld vibration harvesting device: when the vibration frequency is 14 Hz, vibration height is 980 mm, and vibration duration is 13 s, the fruit picking rate reaches 95.22%. The harvesting efficiency of this device is significantly higher than manual picking methods, fully meeting the requirements for efficient Camellia oleifera fruit harvesting.