**3. Design of Key Components**

#### *3.1. Material Characteristics*

Material characteristics of dandelion plants and seeds provide an important basis for the design of the harvester [16]. To determine key parameters including the plant height, diameter of spherical seed heads, and moisture content of seeds, 100 dandelion plants were randomly selected in the field and measured. The material characteristics of measured dandelion plants and seeds are summarized in Table 2.

**Table 2.** Material characteristics of dandelion plants and seeds.

