Experimental analysis on biomechanical properties of cucurbits

In order to provide a reference and parameters for designing the hole-oblique insertion hypocotyl grafting robot of cucurbit vegetables, the biomechanical properties test beds had been developed and it they were used to do the biomechanical properties experiments on cucurbitaceous crops, whose research object was common cucurbits in grafting. The morphological characteristics and biomechanical properties (such as tension resistance, compression, column stability) were measured at hypocotyl of cucurbits. The experimental results showed that it could chuck the hypocotyl more quickly and effectively with the gripper which was pasted with EVA soft elastic, and the highest tension resistance of seedling stem was 2.38 N without damaging seeding stem; the largest yield limit pressure of transverse compression was Cucurbita ficifolia and its value was 7.288 N in the seeds of common rootstocks, the smallest of yield limit pressure was figleaf gourd and its value was 3.474 N, the critical instability loads of the column with Cucurbita ficifolia was the largest and its values was 1.49N. The correlation analysis of biomechanical properties and morphological characteristics was conducted by StatView software, and the results indicated that the long axis diameter of cucurbits had a higher correlation with biomechanical properties. It can propose a foundation for designing automatic grafting robot.