Journal of Intelligent Agricultural Mechanization
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2025, 6(2): 24-34
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Design and experiment of an automated honey-harvesting robot
Full
Di ZHANG
1, Chunying WANG
1, 2, 3, Mingguo YANG
1, Zixuan SUN
1, Ping LIU
1, 2, 3, *
Affiliations
- 1.College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai′an 271000, China
- 2.Shandong Engineering Research Center of Agricultural Equipment Intelligentization, Tai′an 271000, China
- 3.Shandong Key Laboratory of Intelligent Production Technology and Equipment for Facility Horticulture，Shandong Agricultural University, Tai′an 271000, China
ZHANG Di, Postgraduate, research interests: intelligent control technology for agricultural equipment. E-mail: 2023120771@sdau.edu.cn
About Author:
ZHANG Di, Postgraduate, research interests: intelligent control technology for agricultural equipment. E-mail: 2023120771@sdau.edu.cn
Published: 2025-05-15
doi: 10.12398/j.issn.2096-7217.2025.02.002
Outline
The conventional honey production is dominated by fragmented, small-scale individual farming models. The traditional approach of honey-harvesting involving manual beehive frames extraction, beeswax layer excision and centrifugal honey separation, expose beekeepers to potential bee stings and frequently compromise honeycomb integrity. To address these limitations, we designed an automated honey-harvesting robot capable of autonomous frame extraction and beeswax removal. The robot mainly consists of a mobile mechanism equipped with image recognition for beehive localization, a magnetic adsorption-based beehive frame handling device (60.8 N maximum suction) coupled with a cross-slide mechanism for precise frame manipulation, and a thermal beeswax layer-melting apparatus, with optimal melting parameters (15 m/s airflow at 90 ℃ for 30 seconds) determined through rigorous thermal flow simulations utilizing FLUENT/Mechanical software. Field experiments demonstrated beehive frames handling success rate exceeding 85%, beeswax layer removal efficacy over 80% and damage of honeycombs below 30%. The experiment results validate the robot's operational reliability and its capacity to automate critical harvesting procedures. This study significantly reduces the labor intensity for beekeepers, effectively eliminates the risk of direct human-bee contact and improves the removal of beeswax layer, thereby catalyzing the modernization of the beekeeping industry.
honey-harvesting
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automated
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beeswax layer-melting
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fluid-structure interaction
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parameter optimization
张迪, 王春颖, 杨明国, 孙梓轩, 刘平.
蜂蜜自动化采收机器人的设计与试验.
智能化农业装备学报（中英文）,
2025
, 6
(2)
: 24
-34
.
DOI: 10.12398/j.issn.2096-7217.2025.02.002
Di ZHANG, Chunying WANG, Mingguo YANG, Zixuan SUN, Ping LIU.
Design and experiment of an automated honey-harvesting robot[J].
Journal of Intelligent Agricultural Mechanization,
2025
, 6
(2)
: 24
-34
.
DOI: 10.12398/j.issn.2096-7217.2025.02.002
- National Natural Science Foundation of China(31700644)
- Shandong Province Postdoctoral Innovation Project(SDCX-ZG-202400195)
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Year 2025 volume 6 Issue 2
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Article Info
doi: 10.12398/j.issn.2096-7217.2025.02.002
- Receive Date：2024-12-31
- Online Date：2026-11-05
- Published：2025-05-15
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