Research progress on picking/harvesting techniques, and equipment of tea shoots

The research and development of tea shoots picking/harvesting techniques is the core link in the tea industry's mechanized upgrading, with technological breakthroughs critical to improving tea production efficiency and quality. This paper reviews relevant research progress and analyzes the technical characteristics and application scenarios of different types of equipment combined with agronomic requirements. Studies show that bulk tea picking/harvesting equipment mainly adopts reciprocating cutting machines, which enable large-scale operations but are associated with a relatively high tea shoot damage rate and impurity content, as well as moderately poor quality. For premium tea, handheld picking/harvesting equipment has significantly improved the integrity of tea shoots by optimizing picking/harvesting structure effector and operating parameters. However, it still relies on manual visual recognition and positioning, and the level of intelligence urgently needs enhancement. Intelligent picking/harvesting technology focuses on tea shoot recognition, picking point positioning, and biomimetic end-effector design. Although breakthroughs have been made in tea shoot recognition capabilities, three key bottlenecks remain: relatively low equipment integration, moderately high failure rates, and comparatively lower efficiency than manual picking, which hinder industrial promotion. Future efforts should prioritize the research and development of intelligent, lightweight, and modular equipment, integrate agricultural machinery with agronomy, and establish a unified standard system covering equipment, agronomic measures, and operation processes. This will promote the practical application of picking/harvesting equipment, providing technical support and a theoretical basis for the tea industry's mechanized and intelligent transformation.