With the increase of planting area of safflower in Xinjiang, problems such as low efficiency of artificial picking, high labor intensity and serious filaments residue are becoming increasingly prominent. The development of safflower industrialization is seriously restricted, so it is urgent to realize mechanized picking of safflower. The clamping combtype picking device was developed. The motion attitude of safflower had an important influence on picking effect, in order to reveal the relationship between different structure parameters and motion parameters of picking device and safflower movement, a combpicking model was established based on the material characteristics of safflower. The picking process was simulated by ANSYS/LS-DYNA software, and the structure and motion parameters of the picking device were adjusted continuously until the safflower ball and branch reached the ideal picking position. The simulation results showed that the movement of safflower balls and branches picked in low position was more stable than that in high position, and picking device can realize ideal picking. When walking velocity was 2.5km/h，rotation velocity was 150r/min，and the horizontal distance between the limit rod and the rotating center of comb teeth was 30mm, the picking effect was the best. According to the field picking requirements of safflower, the experiment platform was built and the picking experiment was carried out. The result of picking test showed that 56% of safflower can realize ideal picking and average recovery rate was 48.5%. The results provided a theoretical basis for the parameter optimization design of combed safflower picking device.