Development of a cucumber leaf picking device for greenhouse production

A leaf picking device for cucumbers was designed and evaluated. The picking device is manually operated but can be used as a picking tool for a robot. The device consisted of a picking rotor composed from knives and brushes, a motor and a vacuum cleaner. The performance of removal, cutting, torque and shredding was investigated in the laboratory experiments. In the greenhouse experiments, the performance of picking and cutting was investigated. The results were as follows: (1) the highest removal success rate was achieved at a rotation speed of 1000 min−1, a rotor configuration of ‘two knives and two brushes’ and an insertion speed of 50 mm s−1; (2) in this mechanical setting, the percentage of the summation of the smooth cut surface of the leaf stalk and the smooth cut surface with small skin was 90%; (3) the required torque was 0.09–0.96 N m and the average particle size of the shredded leaves was 7.3–21.2 cm2; (4) the percentages of area of the dropped particles to the average area of leaves was 10–16%; (5) the average execution time per leaf was 1.1–2.3 s.