To improve the harvesting efficiency of mechanized cabbage harvesting and reduce damage, the structural configuration of a cabbage harvester was designed based on the cabbage cultivation pattern, physical morphological parameters, and mechanical harvesting characteristics. The harvester consists of a crawler power chassis, pulling device, crop guiding device, clamping and conveying device, profiling device, root-cutting device, and leaf-stripping and collecting device, which enables simultaneous pulling, conveying, root cutting, outer leaf separation, and collection for two rows of cabbages in a single pass, thereby enhancing harvesting efficiency. The sources of cabbage damage during the harvesting process were analyzed, and dynamic analyses of the key components were performed to determine their structural parameters. Through single-factor experiments and response surface methodology optimization tests, the effects of forward speed, pulling roller rotational speed, clamping and conveying speed, and cutter rotational speed on the harvest qualification rate were evaluated. The optimal working parameter combination of these factors was determined and validated through field harvesting performance tests. The results showed that, under the operating conditions of forward speed 0.4 m/s, pulling roller rotational speed 114 r/min, clamping and conveying speed 0.51 m/s, and cutter rotational speed 338 r/min, the average harvest qualification rate reached 96.4%, and the average damage rate was 3.6%, which is close to the maximum theoretical harvest qualification rate of 96.78% predicted by the optimization model. The field validation tests demonstrated good performance, with all indicators meeting the design requirements and relevant standards, providing theoretical support and reference for the development and improvement of cabbage harvesting machinery.

To support the design of low-damage harvesting and transportation equipment, clarify the damage-formation mechanism under drop impact, and quantitatively predict impact-induced damage volume, this study investigated the cucumber cultivar “Zhongnong Cuiyu No. 3”. Mechanical and creep tests were conducted to determine the biomechanical parameters of the peel, flesh, and core. Based on the distinct internal tissue structure of the cucumber, a three-layer viscoelastic finite element (FE) model was developed. Tissue-specific damage thresholds were applied to calculate the dynamic damage volume throughout the entire impact process. Using a Box–Behnken design, a quadratic response surface model was established to analyze the effects of drop angle, drop height, and logarithmic contact stiffness on the log-transformed damage volume. The framework was subsequently validated through physical drop tests, tissue staining, and sliced-image analysis. Simulation results indicated that as drop height increased from 0.10 to 1.00 m, the maximum von Mises equivalent stress increased from 1.19–1.57 MPa to 2.49–3.30 MPa, with high-stress regions expanding significantly along the longitudinal axis of the fruit. The fitted response surface model yielded an R², adjusted R², and predicted R² of 0.9934, 0.9849, and 0.8943, respectively. Drop height showed the largest contribution to damage-volume variation, followed by a pronounced quadratic effect of drop angle, whereas contact stiffness showed a weaker influence within the tested range. Physical validation showed that the experimental damage volume generally increased with drop height and that the horizontal orientation (0° impact angle) produced lower damage than the inclined postures at medium and high drop heights. The numerical predictions reproduced the overall damage trend and approximate magnitude under several tested conditions, although condition-dependent deviations remained. Larger relative deviations at low damage levels were associated with the small absolute damage volume, biological variability, background micro-damage, staining response, and image-quantification uncertainty. The proposed framework effectively links tissue viscoelasticity, whole-fruit impact response, and three-dimensional damage volume, providing a robust theoretical basis for drop-risk assessment and the optimization of low-damage vegetable mechanization systems.