Design, Development and Testing of Feeding Grippers for Vegetable Plug Transplanters

Vegetable transplanting is an important and advantageous practice in vegetables production systems. In recent years, the development of vegetable tools has increased, as well interest for automatic robotic transplanters. However, at present, feeding machines often still performed by hand. This paper presents design, testing a needle gripper two-finger transplanting. Both grippers were self-designed tested picking, lifting plug seedlings. Tests have been conducted on fennel (Foeniculum vulgare L.), leek (Allium ampeloprasum L.) chicory (Cichorium intybus lettuce (Lactuca sativa seedlings to determine impact that typology might further growth plants after The average success rate experiment was 95% 81.75%, respectively. Although neither affected transplanting, several design implications identified order improve performance both grippers. Furthermore, more reliable chicory, while requires root plugs with higher firmness cohesion prevent shattering.