OPTIMAL DESIGN AND EXPERIMENT OF RICE POT SEEDLING TRANSPLANTING MECHANISM WITH PLANETARY BEZIER GEARS

After analyzing its trajectory and attitude requirements, a rice pot seedling transplanting mechanism with planetary Bezier gears that was designed by using a fitted Bezier curve as a non-circular gear pitch curve is proposed. In addition, the transmission characteristics of this mechanism were analyzed. A kinematic model of a rice pot seedling transplanting mechanism with planetary Bezier gears was established. Analysis and optimization software for the transplanting mechanism was developed and used to obtain a group of optimized parameters for a transplanting mechanism that met the requirements of rice pot seedling transplanting. The numerical model of the non-circular gear shaping process based on the pitch curve point set was deduced. Three-dimensional modeling software for a non-circular gear was also developed and used to model the Bezier gear. A virtual prototype of the transplanting mechanism was established and simulated using ADAMS software. A physical prototype of the transplanting mechanism was assembled and mounted on a self-developed transplanting test rig on which high-speed photography experiments and pot seedling pickup experiments were conducted. The results of the theoretical analysis, virtual test, and physical prototype test were essentially identical, which verified the validity of the theoretical model, optimization software, virtual prototype, and physical prototype.