Vegetable mechanized transplanting is a key link bridging industrial seedling raising and field cultivation, whose technical level directly determines operating efficiency and planting standardization. Despite its importance, current transplanting systems still struggle with instability and limited coordination between modules. This review adopts a systematic literature analysis methodology, covering core databases including Web of Science, Scopus, CNKI, and CAB Abstracts. In response to prominent issues in current transplanting equipment, such as continuous seedling supply, low-damage seedling picking, synchronization of conveying and planting actions, and adaptability to high-speed operation, this paper systematically reviews and evaluates the latest research progress in related key technologies worldwide. From the perspective of kinematic chain coupling, the transplanting process is deconstructed into four core stages: “seedling supply—seedling picking—seedling delivery—seedling planting,” with a focus on analyzing the temporal coordination, spatial constraints, state transitions, and their dynamic coupling relationships within the machine-seedling-soil system. Research indicates that vegetable transplanting technology is evolving from localized mechanism optimization toward whole-process collaborative design and system stability control, with typical high-speed operation efficiency reaching 60–140 plants per minute per row. However, significant challenges remain in low-damage seedling picking and planting at high speeds, adaptability to diverse varieties and seedling states, online perception and real-time error correction, as well as engineering reliability. The seedling damage rate under high-speed operation exceeds 8% in most existing equipment, and the planting upright rate drops by more than 5% when the operating speed increases from 60 plants/min to 120 plants/min. Future research should prioritize multi-stage collaborative optimization design, in-depth investigation of machine-seedling-soil interaction mechanisms, innovation in intelligent perception and precise control strategies, and the development of modular, low-cost, and high-performance transplanting equipment. These efforts will drive vegetable mechanized transplanting technology toward greater intelligence, efficiency, and versatility.

To address the problems of low picking efficiency, high pot-breaking rate, and poor stability in the pick-up and drop mechanisms of existing automatic vegetable transplanters, this paper describes the design of a whole-row mechanical two-claw seedling-picking mechanism. A “reciprocating common-rail”-type seedling picking trajectory is introduced. A whole-row mechanical two-claw seedling-picking mechanism composed of a planetary gear-linkage mechanism and a gripping mechanism is designed. The coordination method between seedling feeding and seedling picking is determined, and the parameters of the supporting seedling-feeding mechanism are established, completing the design and modelling of key parameters. Through single-factor simulation experiments, the optimal combination of key parameter levels for the seedling-picking claws was selected. A three-factor three-level orthogonal experiment was conducted to determine the optimal combination of working parameters. Seedling-picking performance tests were carried out on peppers, tomatoes, and broccoli. The test results meet relevant national standards, indicating that the pick-up and drop mechanism exhibits strong stability and good versatility, fulfilling the design requirements. This study lays a solid foundation for the design of seedling-picking mechanisms in automatic transplanters.