Design and experimental study of the self-adaptive splitting technology of lotus seeds

The lotus plumule has high medicinal value and is an important part of the lotus seed. Usually, the lotus seed must be split symmetrically into two halves through a splitting process to obtain an intact lotus plumule. However, this process is difficult to mechanize and automate, as different lotus seeds are of different sizes. In this study, a novel automatic self-adaptive splitting technology (SAST) is proposed for lotus seeds, based on a specially designed combined linkage mechanism and a roller pair centering mechanism. The technology can automatically adjust the position of the splitting point taper punch according to the size of the lotus seed and ensure that the tip of the punch is on the axis of the lotus seed. First, the centering deviation of the centering mechanism was analyzed. A mathematical model for the SAST was developed, and the key parameters were optimized using the firefly algorithm. An automatic splitting machine and a test bench were designed for centering deviation measurements, and both centering and splitting experiments were conducted. The generated maximum centering deviation of the SAST was <0.176 mm; the highest accurate splitting rates of 95% and 93.05% were achieved for unclassified and graded lotus seeds, respectively.