In order to solve the problems of poor separation effect, high damage rate and low working efficiency of the existing potato cleaning and sorting machine, a poking roller shoving type potato cleaning and sorting machine was designed. The working mechanism of the potato cleaning machine was described, and the structural parameters of the cleaning device and the sorting device were determined. And the mechanical properties of potato during cleaning and sorting process were analyzed. The orthogonal test was carried out with the unit speed, feeding amount and unit lifting angle as experimental factors, the damaged rate and sorting cleaning rate as experimental indexes. The test results were analyzed by using the data processing software, and it showed that the primary and secondary factors influencing the damaged rate were as follow: unit lifting angle, rotating speed and feeding amount;and the factors affecting the sorting cleaning rate were as follow: feeding amount, unit speed and unit lifting angle. According to the principle of low damage rate and good cleaning rate, the optimum experimental parameters combination were as follow: the unit speed of 145r/min, the feeding account of 20t/h, and the unit lifting angle of 12°. And verifying test results were as follows as follow: the damage rate of potato was 0.773% and the sorting cleaning rate was 95.42%, which met the requirement of potato cleaner. The research provided a reference for further reducing the damage rate and optimizing the parameter of potato sorting machine.