Design and analysis on a small fruit collecting device with flank deployable and foldable mechanisms

With the development of science and technology and the increasing cost in labor, the fruit collection gradually turns to mechanized operation. Existing small fruit collecting devices have bulky and complex structure and need to be equipped with high-power drive, and strict requirement in the tree spacing. In order to improve the mechanical collecting device for the small fruits, a collecting device with flank deployable and foldable mechanism was introduced in this paper. The collect device consists of three parts which are flank deployable and foldable mechanism, lifting mechanism and mobile clamping mechanism. Kinematics of the flank deployable and foldable mechanism which is the core mechanism in the main structure of collect device was analyzed, and the main components of the mechanism were optimized using genetic algorithm (GA) with the MATLAB program. The optimal dimensions of the main components are lAB=277.88mm，lAD=661.64mm，lPE=306.58mm.The 3D model of the flank deployable and foldable mechanism was imported into the dynamic analysis software ADAMS, the motion trajectory of the mechanism was simulated and get the dynamic simulation result that the driving torque was 2.64N·m .A prototype of the flank deployable and foldable mechanism was manufactured and its trajectory was recorded by high-speed photography system. Trajectories of experiment and virtual simulation were basically consistent which verified the design of this collecting device.