A new seedling pickup device for vegetable transplanters was developed and evaluated in a laboratory. Thepickup device extracts seedlings from a 200cell tray and transfers them to a position from which they can be transplantedinto the soil. The device consists of a path generator, pickup pins, and a pin driver. The path generator is a fivebarmechanism comprised of a fixed slot, a driving link, a driven link, a connecting link, and a slider. The slider is constrainedto move along the driven link and a fixed slot of combined straightline and circular paths. The connecting link joins thedriving link and the slider. When the slider moves along the straightline path of the slot, it takes a seedling from a cell. Whenit moves along the circular path, it transfers the seedling to the transplanting hopper. The slider is an assemblage of pickuppins and a pin driver, which are integral parts of the device. Operational parameters such as seedling age, approach directionof the pins, penetration depth of the pins into the cell, seedling holding method, and extracting velocity were examined usinga prototype. The device extracted 30 seedlings per minute with a success ratio of 97% using 23dayold seedlings.
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Choi et al. (2002) studied this question.