Automatic grafting and cutting machines can be employed to satisfy the increasing demand for seedlings without soil-borne diseases in a short period. The main approach used to feed seedlings for automatic grafting and cutting machines is artificial, which limits the improvement of grafting and cutting machine productivity. The separation system with a subdivision air stream can stably feed seedlings for cutting and grafting machines; however, the separation efficiency is low when a few seedlings are in the separator. To solve this problem, a feedback monitoring device with a photosensitive sensor as the sensing element and feedback functions on the status of seedlings in the separator was developed. Through experiments using a photosensitive sensor to monitor the separation process of tomato seedlings, the results showed that the effect on the effective seedling blowing rate varied from large to small depending on the seedling size, light intensity, and sensor diameter. The results of separation experiment showed that the productivity of the entire system was 8784 plants/h, which satisfies the productivity needs of the grafting and cutting machine. Compared with the separation device without feedback monitoring, the productivity increased by 39%, the damage rate decreased by 4%, and the number of subdivided air stream operations was reduced by 47%.

To adhere to the needs of automated supply of collected seedlings for mechanized grafting and cutting machines for enhancing their operational efficiency, herein, a separation system that uses subdivided air streams to separate the collected seedlings is developed. The separation system comprises a feeder for supplying collected seedlings, a seedling separator that uses subdivided air streams, a picking belt for the separated seedlings, a delivery unit for the separated seedlings, a pneumatic unit, and a control unit. To investigate the complete performance of separation, picking, and delivery of the separation system, several separation experiments were conducted to separate the collected Anthurium seedlings. The results show that the consistency of the moving direction of seedlings floated by subdivided air streams in the separation container and the moving direction of the picking belt have a significant effect on the picking of the separated seedlings by the picking belt. Moreover, the seedling supply timing of the feeder has a significant effect on the stability of the collected seedling separation rate during continuous separation. When this timing is such that the percentage of separated seedlings is 70%, the separation rate of continuous separation operation is 2.24 plant/s (the separation productivity is 8060 plants/h) with 0.12 CV. The operating conditions are 0.5 MPa separation pressure, 0.5 s nozzle operation time, and 60 mm seedling thickness in the separation container. Moreover, the staying times of the collected seedlings separated in the separation container are less than 2.5 min.

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