Original Articles Open access

Air-suction double-roller harvesting device for Lycium barbarum L.

Authors

Published
19 August 2026
Issue
Early Access
Section
Original Articles
DOI
10.4081/jae.2026.2038

Abstract

Lycium barbarum L. (L. barbarum) is a continuous-flowering and continuous-fruiting crop with thin and delicate fruit skin, necessitating multiple harvesting rounds. Currently, the harvesting of L. barbarum primarily relies on manual labor, leading to high labor demands and underscoring the urgent need for efficient, low-damage mechanized harvesting solutions. In this study, an air-suction double-roller harvesting device was designed. The harvesting mechanism operates by guiding L. barbarum into the picking zone via an airflow-induced suction stream, followed by gentle separation through a flexible double-roller structure. The fruit guiding process was modeled based on pneumatic attraction and analyzed through high-speed photography experiments. The results indicate that fruit velocity gradually increases during the guiding phase, with peak acceleration occurring at a specific location within this stage. A response-surface experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of preloading force and roller speed on the picking rate of ripe fruit, the picking rate of unripe fruit, and the mechanical damage rate of ripe fruit. Parameter optimization resulted in optimal operating conditions with a preloading force of 0.903 N and a roller speed of 49.172 r/min. Under these conditions, validation experiments achieved a picking rate of ripe fruit of 93.7%, a picking rate of unripe fruit of 2.8%, and a damage rate of ripe fruit of 1.1%. This study provides a valuable reference for the design of vacuum-based harvesting devices for L. barbarum.

Keywords

Supporting Agencies

the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32272001), Key Research and Development and Transformation Program of Qinghai Province (2024-NK-141S-1)

Data Availability Statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Chen J, Zhao J, Chen Y, Bu LX, Hu GR, Zhang EY, 2019. Design and experimental optimization of vibrating-brush type wolfberry harvester. Trans Chin Soc Agric Mach 50:11.
  2. Chen QY, Kang R, Wei NS, Fan YL, Wang ZY, Chen Y, Chen J, 2024a. Design and experiment optimize of the vibration harvesting machine of Lycium barbarum L. J Agric Eng 55:1597. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4081/jae.2024.1597
  3. Chen QY, Zhang SX, Hu GR, Zhou JG, Zhao J, Chen Y, et al., 2022. Parameter optimization of the harvest method in the standardized hedge cultivation mode of Lycium barbarum using response surface methodology. Horticulturae 8:308.
  4. Chen QY, Zhang SX, Wei NS, Li PH, Hu GR, Chen J, Chen Y, 2024b. Design and optimization of torsion harvester of Lycium barbarum L. Int J Agric Biol Eng 17:109-115.
  5. Chen Y, Zhao J, Hu G, Chen J,2021. Design and testing of a pneumatic oscillating chinese wolfberry harvester. Horticulturae 7:214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7080214
  6. Harano Y, Ozima M, Araya K, Teramoto C, Wakita Y, Nishino T, et al., 2012. Haskaop harvester: part 3: prototypical model. Appl Eng Agric 5:15-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1881-8366(12)80003-6
  7. Hou HM, Niu W, Wen QX, Yang HR, Zhang JM, Zhang R, et al., 2025. Design and testing of a pneumatic jujube harvester. Agronomy 15:1881. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15081881
  8. Jiang YW, Chen QY, Wei NS, 2025. Determining the impact bruising of goji berry using a pendulum method. Horticulturae 11:14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae11010014
  9. Jinpeng W, Song M, Hongru X, Ying Z, Hongping Z, 2018. Research on mechanized harvesting methods of Lycium barbarum fruit. IFAC-PapersOnLine 51:223-226. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2018.08.148
  10. Lu R, Dickinson N, Lammers K, Zhang K, Chu P, Li Z, 2022. Design and evaluation of end effectors for a vacuum-based robotic apple harvester. J ASABE 65:963-974. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13031/ja.14970
  11. Ma F, Li L, Wang Y, Li P, Zhu C, 2020. Biomechanical properties of wolfberry plant organs. Eng Agric 40:162-176. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-4430-eng.agric.v40n2p162-176/2020
  12. Masci A, Carradori S, Casadei MA, Paolicelli P, Petralito S, Ragno R, Cesa S, 2018. Lycium barbarum polysaccharides: Extraction, purification, structural characterisation and evidence about hypoglycaemic and hypolipidaemic effects. A review. Food Chem 254:377-389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.01.176
  13. Patsilinakos A, Ragno R, Carradori S, Petralito S, Cesa S, 2018. Carotenoid content of Goji berries: CIELAB, HPLC-DAD analyses and quantitative correlation. Food Chem 268:49-56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.06.013
  14. Qingyu C, Shixia Z, Guangrui H, Jianguo Z, Jian Z, Yu C, et al., 2022. Parameter optimization of the harvest method in the standardized hedge cultivation mode of Lycium barbarum using response surface methodology. Horticulturae 8:308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8040308
  15. Wang RY, Zheng ZA, Xu LM, Wu G, Chen JW, Yuan QC, et al., 2019. Experimental study on parameters of pneumatic suction harvesting for Lycium barbarum. J Agric Mech Res 41:165-171.
  16. Wang YT, Yang C, Gao YY, Lei YQ, Ma LF, Qu AL, 2024. Design and Testing of an Integrated Lycium barbarum L. harvester. Agriculture 14:1370. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14081370
  17. Wu Z, Li L, Zhao Q, Guo X, Li JJA, 2022. Design and research of a harvesting actuator for Camellia oleifera flowers during the budding period. 12:1698. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12101698
  18. Yang S, Ji J, Cai H, Chen H, 2022. Modeling and force analysis of a harvesting robot for button mushrooms. IEEE Access 10:78519-78526. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3191802
  19. Yu ZH, Wu J, Jiang F, Xing H, Yan L, Yang JH, 2024. Kinematic analysis of the vibration harvesting process of Lycium barbarum L. fruit. Agriculture 14:1715. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14101715
  20. Zhao J, Ma T, Inagaki T, Chen Y, Hu GR, Wang ZW, et al., 2021. Parameter optimization of vibrating and comb-brushing harvesting of Lycium barbarum L. based on FEM and RSM. Horticulturae 7 286. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7090286
  21. Zhao J, Sugirbay A, Chen Y, Zhang S, Liu FY, Bu LX, et al., 2019. FEM explicit dynamics simulation and NIR hyperspectral reflectance imaging for determination of impact bruises of Lycium barbarum L. Postharvest Biol Technol 155:102-110. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2019.05.024
  22. Zhang WQ, Li ZZ, Tan YZ, Li W, 2018. Optimal design and experiment of variable-spacing comb-brush type wolfberry harvesting device. Trans Chin Soc Agric Mach 49:83-90.
  23. Zhang Z, Xiao HR, Ding WQ, Mei S, 2015. Simulation analysis of vibration picking mechanism for Lycium barbarum and prototype test. Trans Chin Soc Agric Eng 31:20-28.

Metrics

Citations and online attention from Dimensions, Altmetric and PlumX.

PlumX Metrics

License

Copyright (c) 2026 the Author(s)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.