Design and Optimization of a Vibratory Device for Embryo-Oriented Single-Row Conveying of Rice Seeds

To address single-row feeding and embryo-orientation requirements in rice-seed preprocessing, a two-stage cooperative vibratory conveying and orientation device was developed for one tested batch of the long-grain hybrid indica cultivar ‘Y Liangyou 900’. The circular module fluidizes bulk seeds and forms a single-row stream, and the linear module uses stepped V-shaped grooves for passive posture correction. For 50 individually identified seeds, repeated camera measurements gave a longitudinal embryo-end center-of-mass offset of 0.285 ± 0.040 mm (mean ± sample SD; range 0.215–0.344 mm; CV 14.1%). Five tipping trials per seed at 200 V, 100 Hz, a 6 mm step, and a 9° chute showed a positive but overlapping relationship between Δd and tipping probability; threshold screening placed the effective stabilizing moment Msave,eff on the order of 10−7 N·m. At 100 Hz, PCB M352C68 accelerometer measurements with five 10 s repeats per voltage gave amplitude equivalents of 0.100, 0.137, and 0.176 mm at 160, 180, and 200 V, corresponding to peak accelerations of 4.03, 5.52, and 7.09 g. Five paired physical-simulation calibration tests gave mean absolute relative errors of 0.89% for angle of repose and 0.43% for bulk density. Across 11 conveying conditions, DEM and bench throughputs ranged from 180–208 and 176–204 grains/min, respectively, with a mean absolute percentage error of 1.98%. Orthogonal testing selected a 6 mm step height, 9° chute inclination, 200 V linear-vibrator setpoint, and 100 Hz vibration frequency; ten independent 200-seed verification runs (2000 seeds total) gave mean forward-retention and reverse-correction rates of 92.4% and 88.1%. The archived verification records preserve aggregate means but not the complete run-level values required for dispersion estimates. Integrated optimization selected a conveyor-belt speed of 31.5 mm/s, a 200 V setpoint, and a 5.30 mm transfer drop height; validation means were 91.2% orientation success and 14.5% seed-flow-uniformity CV. In an unreplicated condition-level robustness screen, lower performance values were descriptively observed at high moisture and under dusty or broken-glume conditions. Because each condition was evaluated only once, these observations do not constitute statistical evidence of robustness or factor effects. The findings therefore remain specific to the tested cultivar, conditions, and short-run protocol.