To address issues such as attitude instability, insufficient adaptability, and poor operational quality of precision operation equipment caused by complex terrain conditions in hilly orchards, this study designed an electric carrier Self-Leveling Platform based on the 3-RRS parallel configuration. Focusing on the stability requirements of the operation plane, an automatic leveling control strategy was proposed with the constant center height of the moving platform as an additional constraint condition. Based on the inverse kinematics solution of the 3-RRS Parallel Mechanism, the analytical mapping relationship between the fuselage attitude and the compensation angle of the leveling leg crank was derived, and based on this, the working space of the Self-Leveling Platform and the maximum compensation angles of the moving platform in the pitch and roll directions were calculated. Key structural parameters were optimized using a multi-objective genetic algorithm, followed by the completion of a 3D model design and modal simulation analysis to verify the effectiveness of the structural design. Finally, leveling performance tests were conducted on a prototype. The results showed that the platform can achieve omnidirectional automatic leveling, with a maximum leveling time of 1.593 s and a maximum steady-state error of 0.62° under typical slope and load conditions. Analysis of variance results further indicated that there are significant differences in the leveling performance of the 3-RRS parallel configuration of the Self-Leveling Platform in the pitch and roll directions, demonstrating anisotropic characteristics. This study provides an effective solution for attitude stability control of orchard operation equipment in hilly areas and offers theoretical reference and technical support for the application of the 3-RRS parallel configuration in the agricultural equipment field.

Driven by agricultural labor shortages and rising quality requirements, ginger harvesting increasingly demands high-throughput, low-damage operations and a reliable supply chain. This review summarizes harvesting modes and harvester types used in ginger production, with emphasis on critical process modules: digging and lifting, soil disintegration and cleaning, vine cutting and anti-tangling, gentle conveying, and collection. We compare major technical routes in terms of field capacity, control of soil and foreign materials, damage mitigation, and reliability under continuous operation, and identify the conditions under which each route performs best. Drawing on advances in harvesting systems for other root and bulb crops, we outline transferable approaches for intelligent sensing, precision control, and system-level integration. We then propose an online monitoring and closed-loop regulation framework for strongly coupled conditions, such as heavy clay soils, plastic-mulch residues, and vine interference. Key bottlenecks include limited cross-regional adaptability, persistent trade-offs between low damage and high throughput, cost constraints on intelligent functions, and the lack of shared datasets and standardized evaluation protocols. Future progress should be anchored in integrated equipment sets and supporting operating specifications, guided by multi-source sensing-based quality indicators and interpretable control strategy libraries, to reduce harvest losses, stabilize marketable quality, improve operational efficiency, and enable scalable adoption.

Vegetable sweet potato shoot tips are harvested repeatedly for fresh markets, but harvest timing and cut length are still determined largely by experience, limiting their translation into mechanized design parameters and control thresholds. We conducted a two-factor shear-mechanics experiment using three cultivars (‘Fu 23’, ‘Fu 18’, and ‘HD-V4’) and five shoot-tip length levels (10–30 cm), while also measuring stem diameter and moisture content. Because shear tests were performed on short stem segments sampled from a fixed internodal position relative to the apex, the length factor is interpreted mainly as a field-operable harvest criterion and only secondarily as a variable partly associated with tissue position. Moisture content was uniformly high and did not differ among cultivars (p > 0.05). In a pooled two-way ANOVA, length significantly affected maximum shear force (p < 0.01), cultivar was also significant (p < 0.05), and the interaction was not significant (p > 0.05). After including stem diameter as a covariate, both diameter and length remained significant, whereas cultivar became non-significant, indicating that stem diameter explains much of the apparent cultivar difference in absolute load. The reported stress is nominal shear stress. Laboratory-based 95th percentile design loads with γ = 1.3 provide conservative engineering thresholds for preliminary design and harvest-window back-calculation.

Agricultural production in hilly and mountainous areas is characterized by fragmented fields, frequent slope variations, narrow farm roads, and highly variable soil bearing and adhesion conditions, which impose distinctive requirements on the traction and mobility, slope stability, maneuverability, and operational adaptability of agricultural power machinery. Focusing on tractors and related power chassis, this review synthesizes research conducted in China and elsewhere from two complementary perspectives: equipment configurations and key terrain-adaptive technologies. Research progress is reviewed for wheeled tractors, crawler tractors, slope-leveling and other special-configuration tractors, micro-tillers, and lightweight power platforms, with particular emphasis on lightweight and overall structural design, traction and machine–soil interaction, slope stability and attitude adjustment, high-maneuverability steering, powertrain and transmission systems, and intelligent operation control. The reviewed studies indicate a transition from compact, low-center-of-gravity, and fixed-configuration designs toward active leveling, continuously variable transmission, multimode steering, vehicle-implement coordination, and intelligent autonomous operation. However, pronounced trade-offs remain between lightweight design and traction capacity, high maneuverability and slope stability, and high terrain mobility and low soil disturbance. The reliability, economic viability, and long-term performance of many specialized machines under complex operating conditions also require further validation. Based on the reviewed evidence, the evolution of terrain adaptation is summarized into three stages: passive terrain adaptation, coordinated terrain adaptation, and active terrain adaptation. Future research should focus on lightweight and reconfigurable design, active slope stabilization, efficient power transmission, autonomous operation in complex terrain, and machine–soil–crop coordination, thereby advancing power machinery from fixed-structure adaptation toward multisystem coordination and ultimately perception-driven active adaptation.