Abstract:Aiming to address common technical challenges in mechanized garlic harvesting in China, including high missed harvest rates, significant damage rates, inability to cut roots effectively, and uneven root-cutting uniformity, a low-loss, high-efficiency combined garlic harvester with wire-controlled full hydraulic drive was developed. Structurally, the design incorporated a rotating disc knife-type root/ stem cutting mechanism. Flexible alignment mechanisms and lower-end positioning methods minimized rigid collisions between garlic heads and mechanical components, reducing damage. Control-wise, the wire-controlled hydraulic drive system enabled precise regulation of forward speed, clamping angle, and motor speed, optimizing root-cutting trajectories and clamping posture to enhance uniformity. Based on this approach, a three-factor, three-level Box-Behnken experiment was conducted by using missed harvest rate, root-cutting rate, and damage rate as evaluation metrics. The results validated the machine??s effectiveness in reducing missed harvests, improving root-cutting quality, and achieving low-loss harvesting, yielding optimal operational parameters: forward speed of 0.301m/s, hydraulic motor speed of 400r/min, and clamping angle of 39.607°. Field trial results demonstrated that at a forward speed of 0.3m/s, motor speed of 400r/min, and clamping angle of 38°, the machine achieved a harvest loss rate of 4.17% , damage rate of 2.39% , and clean-cut rate of 94.4%. Compared with traditional combined harvesting machinery, these figures represented reductions in harvest loss rate to 5% , damage rate to 3% , and improve clean-cut rate to 94% , meeting the operational requirements for mechanized, low-loss, and high-efficiency garlic harvesting while providing technical support for the development of future unmanned and intelligent garlic combined harvesters.