Design and Experiment of an Underactuated Broccoli-Picking Manipulator
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript presented an underactuated broccoli-picking manipulator, which is of great significance for the automatic picking of broccoli. I'm satisfied with this manuscript because of the reasonable structure, good writing and nice results. Together, I consider it worthy of publication in the journal of Agriculture. Nevertheless, there are several issues that need to be fixed.
1. In Abstract, I think the sentence “manual broccoli-picking takes time and energy” could change into “manual broccoli-picking is laborious and energy-consuming”.
2. Figures 2 and 7 lack clarity.
3. The title of 4.4 needs to be further improved because there are two words “test”.
4. Please add another subsection 5.3 to show the advantage and disadvantage of the broccoli-picking manipulator.
I think that some additional information mentioned above, should contribute to increase the impact of this work, which is in my opinion of good quality and is developed in the right direction.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for taking the time to read our articles and for your valuable comments. The manuscript was revised using the revision mode. We carefully read your review comments and modified the text according to your comments and the actual research status at the present stage. Please review the uploaded file 'author-coverletter-28401176.v1' for a specific reply. (Red represents your comments, and green represents our answers)
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
In this study, a broccoli-picking manipulator with two fingers of symmetrical underactuated structure is analyzed, I believe the study has important research and application value.
In general, the research work was good and the research methods were feasible. But there are still some problems that need to be improved:
1. In the test of the pressure range of the flower ball surface. Will the contact area under force be different due to the different diameters of the flower balls to affect the determination of the flower ball surface damage?
2. Figure. 3 and 6 in the study are not arranged in the same order and the damage labeling in Figure. 6c is not reflected, so it is suggested to re-label.
3. As shown in Figure 7, the maximum cutting force of the stem is 37.28 N. How to determine the cutting force range of 30-35N in this study?
4. Can the underactuated manipulator be used to pick other vegetables? Is the study general and generalized?
I think a minor is needed.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for taking the time to read our articles and for your valuable comments. The manuscript was revised using the revision mode. We carefully read your review comments and modified the text according to your comments and the actual research status at the present stage. Please review the uploaded file 'author-coverletter-28401224.v1' for a specific reply. (Red represents your comments, and green represents our answers)
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript topic is quite interesting and would bring some innovation to the field. I would like to comment some minor corrections:
1. L79-87, The objective in the introduction is suggested to be write in the future tense.
2. L111, Figure 3d, is it “pick” or “release” in a final stage?
3. L137-149, How do you think about the influence of the working parameter of the cutting blade and the parameter of broccoli stem on the cutting force and damage?
4. Key working and structure parameters are suggested to be indicated in the conclusion and abstract.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you for taking the time to read our articles and for your valuable comments. The manuscript was revised using the revision mode. We carefully read your review comments and modified the text according to your comments and the actual research status at the present stage. Please review the uploaded file 'author-coverletter-28401185.v1' for a specific reply. (Red represents your comments, and green represents our answers)
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
