Research Progress on Mechanical Tea Plucking

Hand plucking leaves is a traditional and labor-intensive operation in tea making. The operation is crucial for the quality of a finished tea product. Thus, in transition from manual to mechanized plucking in order to improve the efficiency and reduce the laborious workload, careful evaluation and planning must be exercised. This article summarizes the recent progress on the technological development as well as the obstacles remained to overcome on the mechanization of tea plucking. First and foremost, the moving and operating modes as well as the cutting, controlling, and other mechanical parts of the device must be efficient and satisfactory in performing the refined, selective, and precise leaf-picking. To date, there are still much research and development to be conducted in addition to the mechanical aspects, especially, the plantation management under the revolutionary new approach. It was hoped that the timely and practical references provided by this review would be of help to the machine design as well as operation training for the upcoming industrial advancement.