Manual apple picking is inefficient,labor-intensive,and lacks safety.In recent years,with the increase in labor costs,the cost of manual apple picking has also risen.Therefore,there is an urgent need for automated ap-ple picking equipment and technology,such as apple picking robots.However,the end effector of apple picking ro-bots often becomes a critical factor affecting picking efficiency and quality.Therefore,this study proposes a rope-driven end effector for apple picking.The end effector consists of a gripping mechanism,a support connection mech-anism,and a driving transmission mechanism,primarily used for picking apples with a diameter of 80～100 mm.The gripping mechanism consists of three fingers,each with two joints,divided into proximal and distal sections,with rubber flexible materials and pressure sensors on the inner side of the fingers.The support connection mechanism mainly consists of a base disk,a lifting disk,a support frame,and a flange disk,with the support frame also serving as a motion guide for the lifting disk.The driving transmission mechanism consists of a stepper motor,a drum,a traction rope,a lifting disk,a spring,and a thrust link.The stepper motor drives the drum to control the opening and closing of the claws through the traction rope.The design of the end effector is completed through optimization a-nalysis of the distance between the picking finger and the gripping center,the picking pressure threshold,the length of the thrust link,and the selection of the motor.After optimization analysis,the final parameters were determined:the distance between the picking claws and the gripping center is 30 mm,the picking pressure threshold is 7 N,the length of the thrust link is 40 mm,and the selection of the stepper motor is completed.The proposed end effector can achieve automated gripping and twisting of apples.
apple pickingend effectorrope driveoptimization analysis
万方数据
维普
