Design And Key Technology Research Of The Unmanned Honey Harvester For Small Apiary

Honey is a natural food made by certain species of bees collecting and fermenting nectar or honeydew from flowers.It is sweet and rich in flavor,and can provide a variety of essential nutrients for the human body.Honey is a mainstream ingredient in food processing and a popular health product.In recent years,the demand for bee products in the international market has increased,but Chinese beekeeping industry is a typical labor and resource-intensive industry,with small-scale bee farms of less than 100 hives as the main mode of operation.These farms rely heavily on manual harvesting,which is inefficient and prone to worker bee stings.The innovation capability of the honey industry is weak,and industry development urgently needs transformation and upgrading.Therefore,research is being conducted on key technologies for unmanned honey collection for small-scale bee farms.The main research contents are as follows:(1)Mechanical structure design of unmanned honey collection machine.In order to reduce human-bee contact and lower labor intensity,this paper designed an overall mechanical structure of an unmanned honey collection machine based on the physical characteristics of hive box size and honeycomb frame.The structure includes a controller,a walking device,an industrial camera,a honey spooning device,a bee-driving and wax-melting device,and a honey centrifugation device,which can achieve honey collection work with zero contact between humans and bees.(2)Calculation of key parameters of unmanned honey collection machine.Based on the shape parameters of the standard seven-frame hive box and honeycomb frame of the Chinese honeybee,the key parameters of the unmanned honey collection machine were determined.The minimum stroke of the horizontal slide rail is 350 mm,and the minimum stroke of the vertical slide rail is 240 mm.The incremental amount of the horizontal slide rail slide table position is44 mm,and the slide rail operating speed is 50mm/s.The minimum working magnetic force of the electromagnet is 47.7N,and the size of the iron sheet group is 60*27*3mm.The installation position of the air outlet is determined to be 0.1m on both sides of the honeycomb frame,with a wind speed of 15m/s and a blowing time of 10 s.The optimal airflow temperature is 115℃,and the heating time is 30 s.(3)Design of control system for unmanned honey collection machine.In order to achieve efficient operation of the honey collection machine,this paper designed the control system for the unmanned honey collection machine.The control system controls the walking device to move the honey collection machine between the working targets in the apiary according to the preset path.Then,the bottom image of the honey collection machine obtained by the industrial camera is used to adjust the position of the honey collection machine.Finally,the control system controls the honey collection machine to complete the tasks of taking out the honeycomb frame,driving away the bees,removing the wax,and shaking out the honey,according to the set timing,by controlling the honeycomb frame removal device,bee driving and wax melting device,and honey centrifuge.(4)Prototype Manufacturing and Testing of the Unmanned Honey Harvesting Machine.Based on the determined parameters,the prototype of the unmanned honey harvesting machine was produced and performance testing was designed.The test results showed that the machine can process a single honeycomb in 16 seconds less time than manual processing.The success rate of the honeycomb extraction and placement by the machine was 91.5% and 88.6%,respectively.The degree of wax melting was 85%,and the degree of honeycomb structure damage was 28%.The unmanned honey harvesting machine designed for small-scale bee farms can meet the actual production needs,avoiding human-bee contact effectively,reducing the risk of workers being stung,and improving the efficiency of honey collection.