Litchi fruit is rich in water and nutritional value. Machine picking can greatly reduce production costs. But if mechanical damage occurs during picking, it will seriously affect subsequent storage and transportation. In order to reduce the mechanical damage caused by excessive clamping force of the end effector on litchi, this study used the finite element model to analyze the mechanical damage caused by different clamping methods on the pericarp, sarcocarp and putamen of litchi under the basic clamping conditions. The results showed that the effect of clamping the fruit below the waist by double finger lifting was excellent. The maximum deformation of litchi was 42.06μm, the average equivalent elastic strain was 4 -10 90 . 3  and the maximum equivalent stress was 62857 Pa. This method effectively reduced the maximum stress and average strain in the process of grasping and reduced the mechanical damage caused by the end effector to the pericarp and sarcocarp. At the same time, it can provide some reference for the similar characteristics of fresh fruit picking, sorting, transportation and packaging.