A pincette-type end-effector using two fingers and four pins for picking up seedlings was designed. When the end-effector extracts seedlings from the tray cells, its two cylinder fingers push out the four pick-up pins to penetrate into the root soil deeply, and then the pick-up pins are closed to hold the soil of the seedlings firmly for lifting. When the end-effector releases seedlings at the discharge point, its two cylinder fingers open and the pick-up pins loosen the soil of the seedlings and pull the pick-up pins back for discharging. Based on the physical and mechanical properties of plug seedlings as related to the automatic transplanting work, the mechanical design of end-effector was conducted according to the requirements of extracting seedlings. A prototype of the pincette-type end-effector was constructed and test-operated to examine whether or not its functional requirements were satisfied. As the extraction speed was 40mm/s, there were no significant effects on the extraction force for picking up seedlings from the tray cells under various parameters. In the orthogonal experiments, it was found that the root soil moisture content exerted the greatest effect on the root damages in the pick-up process, and other factors such as penetration angle, penetration depth, and root system had no significant effects. As the penetration angle was 11°, the penetration depth was 32mm, the number of seedlings in the cell was 4, and the root soil moisture content was 55%~60%, the minimum root soil damages in picking up seedlings from the tray cells using the designed pincette-type end-effector can be achieved.