The mechanization of orchards in hilly and mountainous areas is an important means to improve production efficiency and increase the economic income of fruit farmers. This paper summarizes the research status of key technologies of orchard work platforms at home and abroad, analyzes the latest research results of work platforms, compares the performance differences between different types of chassis structures, and summarizes the types and characteristics of common work platform lifting mechanisms and automatic leveling mechanisms as well as the features and research progress in safety and stability. This paper also discusses the application of unmanned driving technology in work platforms and summarizes the common path planning technology routes. It points out that the supporting facilities in the mechanization development of orchards are not perfect, and the platform has poor scalability and low level of intelligence, etc., and puts forward some suggestions that the orchard operating platform should develop towards the aspects of strong adaptability, chassis specialization, high intelligence of the whole machine, and high leveling accuracy.

Aiming at the problems of high labor cost and low efficiency of Chuanxiong cuttings, a duckbilled Chuanxiong cutting equipment was designed. The equipment is mainly composed of cutting mechanism, soil covering mechanism, etc., which can complete cutting and soil covering of 4 rows at one time. A simulation model of the duckbill planter was established, its movement track was analyzed, and the suitable seedling point was explored to meet the agronomic requirements. The duckbill was established based on the principles of smaller broken soil area and better erection, combined with the principle of zerospeed seedling throwing. The movement trajectory and related technical parameters of the machine were verified by field tests, so as to verify that the key performance indicators such as inverted insertion rate, missed insertion rate, reinsertion rate, lodging rate, damaged seedling rate, and unfilled rate were all less than 5%, which could well meet the agronomic requirements for Chuanxiong cuttings.

Aiming at the problems of lack of soil loosening and fertilizer application machinery, high labor intensity and low efficiency, the specific process of solving engineering problems with TRIZ theory was analyzed, and the innovative design scheme of fruit tree deep loosening and fertilization machinery was proposed to solve the problems of low efficiency, high labor intensity and large noise of traditional hammering and soil breaking mechanism based on the “conflict resolution theory” by using the ultimate ideal solution and smart little man method. Based on the principle of periodicity, air pressure and hydraulic structure invention, the key components such as the multilink hole breaking mechanism, the gas explosion generating device, and the precision fertilization device were designed, and the detailed design of the deep loosening fertilizer applicator was completed. Through the establishment of SolidWorks 3D digital model simulation and prototype test analysis, the innovative design scheme was evaluated with the hole depth greater than or equal to 400 mm, the number of visible cracks on the soil surface greater than or equal to 2, or the width of single crack greater than or equal to 4 mm as the evaluation index to verify the feasibility and rationality of the design scheme. In addition, the test verified that the air explosion pressure in common orchards in Chengdu and surrounding areas was greater than 0.6 MPa, which could achieve good soil loosening effect, and which will provide useful reference for the research and development and application of deep loosening and fertilization machinery for fruit trees, and lay a foundation for promoting the development of orchard mechanization.

The automatic driving system of agricultural machinery is one of the key technologies of unmanned farms. It had been applied to agricultural equipment such as tractors, combine harvesters, and agricultural robots, and had become a hot spot in academic research. From the aspects of hardware foundation and underlying technology, the principle of agricultural machinery automatic driving technology was sorted out in detail. Its core content lies in the three links: environmental perception, decision-making and planning, and control and execution. The implementation principles of each link and the main research achievements at home and abroad were analyzed one by one. The advantages of agricultural machinery automatic driving compared with manned driving are operation accuracy, efficiency, and reduced operation intensity, and the shortcomings are dynamic path planning, automatic headland steering, system reliability, and safety. The global automatic agricultural machinery driving industry environment was analyzed.The competitive environment of the Chinese market is highlighted. The price and service system of automatic agricultural machinery driving system, the level of mechanization, and the low education level of downstream consumers were the main factors restricting the development of the industry. The future research hotspots will focus on the cooperative operation of the cluster, obstacle detection, initiative obstacle avoidance, and integration with 5G to shaping unmanned agriculture was predicted. It had great reference significance for the construction and development of unmanned agriculture and the reconstruction of China's agricultural production model.