DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON THE END EFFECTOR OF FRUIT ORCHARD COMB-TYPE FLOWER THINNING

Flower thinning is an important agricultural process in orchards. To address issues such as insufficient thinning accuracy and the need for secondary operations in traditional orchard thinning mechanisms, and to meet the agricultural demands for precise flower thinning, this study designs a comb-type flower thinning end effector based on the physical characteristics of the flowers and the agronomic requirements for thinning. This study adopts a flower thinning method combining thinning leaf spring piece and comb teeth. By optimizing the design of the spring piece dimensions, the study first systematically analyzes the force characteristics of the spring piece during the working process, as well as the force conditions of the flowers under different operating conditions, to identify the key factors affecting flower abscission. Next, ADAMS software is used for rigid-flexible coupling dynamic simulation analysis to determine the optimal working speed of the key flower thinning device as 230–250 r/min. Finally, field tests were conducted to verify the working reliability of the flower thinning machine. The test results show that the machine meets the expected design goals, providing technical support for efficient and precise flower thinning operations in orchards.