# Design and Test of a Single-Row Harvesting and Cutting Integrated Handheld Garlic Harvester
## 1 Introduction  
Garlic is nutritious and edible, is an indispensable condition and adjunct in everyday cooking and many dishes [1; 2; 3], and is a common spice with many health benefits [4; 5]. Garlic contains allicin, the active component of garlic, which has been shown to have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties [6; 7; 8], and has been used for thousands of years as a food and for medicinal purposes [9; 10]. As of 2021, China's garlic cultivation area is 10.13 million mu and garlic production is 21.625 million tons [11], which make it the largest garlic cultivation country in the world. China ranks first in terms of garlic production and export volume [12; 13]. There is a low level of mechanization of the whole garlic process in China; the mechanization level of garlic sowing and harvesting in China is less than 5% and 20% [14; 15], respectively. The harvesting of garlic in China still involves manual digging, picking, and processing, resulting in high labor intensity and low harvesting efficiency, which limits the development of garlic cultivation in China [16]. Manual harvesting cannot meet the requirements of harvesting effectiveness, and it is an inevitable choice to mechanize harvesting in the main garlic growing areas in China, given the large area and wide range of garlic cultivation [17; 18]. Foreign garlic harvester models are primarily garlic combine harvesters [19]. For example, [PERSON] BROCH developed an ARCO-4 garlic combine harvester in Spain. In addition, garlic combine harvesters have been developed by ERME in France, Asa-lift in Denmark, Dewulf in Belgium, and Yanmar in Japan [20; 21]. Combined harvesting is important for reducing production losses, saving labor resources, and improving product competitiveness [22; 23]. The garlic excavation, soil cleaning, transportation, straw cutting, and collection steps havebeen highly mechanized in Western European countries and Japan [24]. However, they are not suitable for the closed cropping pattern used in China, and foreign machines are too large and expensive for harvesting operations in domestic garlic cropping patterns [25; 26]. China introduced the Japanese Yanmar H1Z garlic harvester in 2019 to fill the gap of mechanized garlic harvesting in Tianjin. The machine's working efficiency of 0.47 mu/hour improved the operating efficiency by 12 times compared with manual, reduced production costs and labor intensity, and achieved good economic and social benefits [27]. Garlic grown in China is characterized by high straw, high planting density, and narrow row spacing (<20 cm) [28; 29]. In China, [PERSON] [30] and [PERSON] et al. studied the 4s-85 garlic harvester and found a 97.8% clear garlic rate, 0.5% damage rate, and 1668 m\({}^{2}\)/h productivity, and the technical performance met and exceeded the design index. [PERSON]. [31] and [PERSON] et al. studied the 4 DS-40 garlic harvester. The loss rate and injury rate of garlic in operation were less than 1.5%, and the total operation time was 131 h, with two failures, a total time of 2.5 h for fault diagnosis and repair, and an average time between failures of 55.5 h. The reliability of use was 98%. [PERSON] [32] and [PERSON] et al. studied the design of a machine vision-based automatic digging depth control system for garlic combine harvesters based on the principle of visual recognition and regulation, and [PERSON] [25] and [PERSON] et al. studied the parameter optimization and simulation analysis of the floating root cutting mechanism of garlic harvesters based on the root cutting principle. In recent years, China has also developed the 4 DBL-2 successively in combination with mature foreign technologies. Similarly, the 4 DBL-2 semi-feeding self-propelled garlic combine harvester and 4S-85 full-feeding self-propelled garlic combine harvester have been developed in China, but they are generally in the prototype or pilot stage, and the quality, reliability, and economy of operation still need to be improved [33; 34].