DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF A LOW-DAMAGE APPLE BIN FILLING DEVICE
2020-08-09
Jia, Jiangming, Wang, Zijun, Chen, Jianneng, Shi, Jinting, Ma, Zenghong
Jia, Jiangming ; Wang, Zijun ; Chen, Jianneng ; Shi, Jinting ; Ma, Zenghong ; Abstract To address the problem of high rates of damage during automated apple harvesting, caused by uneven distribution in the filling of the apple bin, a device was designed with a bin that could rotate and move up and down autonomously. By analyzing the state of motion and the impact forces during the bin filling process, three factors influencing the rate of damage and the uniform distribution coefficient were identified: the conveyor belt speed, the rotational speed of the bin, and the angle of contact between the soft leather curtain and the bin. EDEM was used to simulate the process and to analyze the individual factors affecting the apple bin filling device, and to determine suitable value ranges for the influencing factors. The Box-Behnken response surface methodology was applied to study the interactive effects of these factors on the damage rate and uniform distribution coefficient. A quadratic regression model was established, in which the damage rate and uniform distribution coefficient were used as response variables, and the optimized values of the influencing factors were obtained as follows: a conveyor belt speed of 0.33 m/s, a rotational speed for the bin of 0.35 rad/s, and a contact angle between the soft leather curtain and bin of 30°. After optimization, the damage rate j was 4.07% and the uniform distribution coefficient S was 0.393. Bin filling experiments in an apple orchard yielded an average damage rate of 5.67% and an average uniform distribution coefficient of 0.408. The deviation between the experimental values and the optimized values was less than 5%. This study can provide a pertinent reference for the design of mechanized and automated bin filling equipment.