*5.2. Analysis of Picking Results*

The criteria for successful harvest were divided into three conditions: planting retention height, flower ball extrusion state, and stem incision state (Figure 15).

(**a**) (**b**)

**Figure 15.** Successful picking factors: (**a**) Clamping damage was low, and plant height was greater than 12 cm; (**b**) The incision surface was flat and non-adhesive.

Ten broccoli plants were selected from each of the five groups to determine the success rate of picking. The robot arm ran at 2.8 m/s, and the stepper motor ran at 60 r/min. As shown in Table 3, the success rate of broccoli picking can reach 84% on average.

**Table 3.** The success rate of picking.


Afterward, 10 broccoli plants were sampled from each of the five groups. The average harvesting time of a single broccoli plant was calculated under the five different moving speeds of the robot arm. The results are shown in Table 4.

**Table 4.** Average harvesting time under different movement speeds.


When the speed of the robot arm exceeded 3.4 m/s, the picking test bench shook violently under the action of inertia. Therefore, the fastest single flower ball harvesting speed was 11.37 s in the laboratory environment when the arm speed was 3.4 m/s, and the stepper motor speed was 60 r/min.

Mechanical damage characteristics of fruits and vegetables include static pressure, vibration, and impact damage [32]. However, the manipulator used in this paper exerts pressure on flower balls during the picking process. According to the simulation test

and damage observation of 100 post-harvest flower balls, the pressure generated by the manipulator does not damage the flower ball surface. Therefore, the non-destructive rate of picking 100 broccoli flower balls was 100%.
