To reduce the draught force of a traditional planar potato digging shovel (DZ), a biomimetic potato digging shovel (YS), inspired by the mole rat’s digits, is designed, using the biomimetic macroscopic surface modification method. The finite element simulations, soil bin experiments, and field experiments for DZ and YS are conducted to explore the factors affecting draught force and to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the biomimetic potato digging shovel. Results show that the soil–shovel interaction models predict the draught force well, but the simulations for the soil rupture distance ratio need to be further improved. The studied factors all have a great influence on the draught force of DZ and YS and they follow the order of cutting speed > digging depth > mounting angle. For the single shovels, YS, compared with DZ, increases the draught force at a low mounting angle but decreases the draught force by over 8.41% when the mounting angle is higher than 30°; for the grouped shovels, the draught force and fuel consumption of YS, compared with those of DZ, decline by over 13.33% and 9.18%, respectively. The reasons for the reduction in the draught force of YS are to make the soil mass tend to move upward and to change the soil’s state of motion and stress continually; thus, the compaction to the soil is reduced, and the soil becomes easier to be broken.

Soil-engaging components play a critical role in agricultural production and engineering construction. However, the soil-engaging components directly interacting with the soil often suffer from the problems of high resistance, adhesion, and wear, which significantly reduce the efficiency and quality of soil operations. A large number of featured studies on the design of soil-engaging components have been carried out while applying the principles of bionics extensively, and significant research results have been achieved. This review conducts a comprehensive literature survey on the application of biomimetics in the design of soil-engaging components. The focus is on performance optimization in regard to the following three aspects: draught reduction, anti-adhesion, and wear resistance. The mechanisms of various biomimetic soil-engaging components are systematically explained. Based on the literature analysis and biomimetic research, future trends in the development of biomimetic soil-engaging components are discussed from both the mechanism and application perspectives. This research is expected to provide new insights and inspiration for addressing related scientific and engineering challenges.

Under the conditions of conservation tillage, the existence of the root–soil complex greatly increases the resistance and energy consumption of stubble-cutting blades, especially in Northeast China. In this research, the corn root–soil complex in Northeast China was selected as the research object. Based on the multi-toothed structure of the leaf-cutting ant’s mandibles and the unique bite mode of its mandibles on leaves, a gear-tooth, double-disk, bionic stubble-cutting device (BSCD) was developed by using a combination of power cutting and passive cutting. The effects of rotary speed, tillage depth, and forward speed on the torque and power of the BSCD were analyzed using orthogonal tests, and the results showed that all of the factors had a large influence on the torque and power, in the order of tillage depth > rotary speed > forward speed. The performance of the BSCD and the traditional power straight blade (TPSB) was explored using comparative tests. It was found that the optimal stubble-cutting rate of the BSCD was 97.4%. Compared with the TPSB, the torque of the BSCD was reduced by 15.2–16.4%, and the power was reduced by 9.2–11.3%. The excellent performance of the BSCD was due to the multi-toothed structure of the cutting edge and the cutting mode.

To achieve high-quality no-till seeding, a wing-shaped stubble-breaking device with excellent stubble-breaking performance was designed for maize stubble. A model of maize stubble was developed based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM) and verified through soil bin tests. The DEM model was used to optimize the design parameters of the device and to investigate the interaction between the blades and the maize stubble during the stubble-breaking process. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the device. The results indicated that the DEM model was accurate; when the optimal design parameters of the wing-shaped stubble-breaking device were a 37° slide cutting angle, 31° pitching angle, and 50 mm wing width, the average torque was 41.26 N·m, the soil breakage rate was 85.68%, and the soil backfill rate was 71.65%; the wing-shaped stubble-breaking device could separate the inside and outside of the strip tillage area and cut maize stubbles and soil blocks twice, thus having excellent stubble-breaking performance. This study provided an effective and feasible method for designing stubble-breaking devices and studying the interaction between blades, soil, and roots, which improved soil tillage theory and was beneficial in promoting conservation tillage technology.

Soil adhesion is one of the important factors affecting the working stability and quality of agricultural machinery. The application of bionic non-smooth surfaces provides a novel idea for soil anti-adhesion. The parameters of sandy loam with 21% moisture content were calibrated by the Engineering Discrete Element Method (EDEM). The final simulated soil repose angle was highly consistent with the measured soil repose angle, and the obtained regression equation of the soil repose angle provides a numerical reference for the parameter calibration of different soils. By simulating the sinusoidal swing of a sandfish, it was found that the contact interface shows the phenomenon of stress concentration and periodic change, which reflects the effectiveness of flexible desorption and soil anti-adhesion. The moving resistance of the wedge with different wedge angles and different serrated structures was simulated. Finally, it was found that a 40° wedge with a high-tail sparse staggered serrated structure on the surface has the best drag reduction effect, and the drag reduction is about 10.73%.

Conventional subsoiling has the problem of excessive draught resistance, which has long been a major concern. A great reduction in draught is urgently required to make better use of the subsoiling technique with many agronomic benefits. In this study, an attempt was made to test the draught reduction performance of a series of tools with continuous belt motions. Comparative simulations between regular tools and belt tools were carried out using the discrete element method (DEM) to investigate the effects of belt motion on tool force, soil disturbance characteristics, particle velocity distribution, and soil deformation and movement patterns. The results indicated that the belt motion reduced the draught force by 13.18%, 25.21%, 37.98%, and 44.64% for the rake angles of 30°, 45°, 60°, and 75°, respectively, and caused acceptable increases in downward vertical force. The changes in soil disturbance, particle velocity distribution, and soil deformation and movement patterns contributed to the reduction in draught force. Negative effects on soil disturbance were acceptable considering the 13.18% to 44.64% reductions in draught force. The present study suggests that the belt motion has a great application potential for draught reduction in subsoiling. Also, this can serve as a theoretical foundation for future studies.