Abstract
The objectives of this study were to develop a harvesting gripper for perilla leaves and test its performance, which was a partial work of the automated perilla leaves harvesting system development. The results of this study could be summarized as the followings: The shear forces for harvesting the perilla were measured. The measured results showed that the average shear force required was 12.13N for cutting the petioles attached to the perilla stalks, and the maximum of 17.42N. The inner diameter of air cylinder used was 6mm and the air pressure was maintained as 0.7㎫ during the tests. The time required for cutting perilla leaves could be adjusted by the control program and cutting operation could be done within 1- 10 seconds. The performance tests were conducted to harvest the perilla leaves by the gripper developed. The average success rates of cutting were 72.2％ for the first test, 78.5％ for the second, and 74.2％ for the last. The perilla leaves were not damaged by the gripper The whole system operation could be finished within three seconds except the delay time for dropping harvested leaves.
