It is a dilemma to solve the picking mechanization of camellia fruit in the camellia industry, of which camellia bud damage is a bottleneck. A motordriven picking actuator of camellia fruit with rotate rubber roller was developed. The principle of camellia fruit picking by rotate rubber roller was analyzed. The interaction between camellia fruit and rotate rubber roller can be summarized as contact, impact and abscission during the process of camellia fruit picking by rotate rubber roller, through which corresponding forces were derived and the critical condition of camellia fruit’s falling off was obtained. By analyzing the parameters of swinging strut of picking head, the efficient adjustable range between upper and lower rubber roller of swinging strut was designed as from 20mm to 65mm, and the preliminary rotate speed was proposed from 20r/min to 40r/min. Tests of camellia fruit picking and its bud damaging were conducted in the camellia forest of Jiangxi Agricultural University when the prototype was completed. Experimental results showed that as the diameter of rubber roller was 30mm, the rotate speed was 30r/min, the linear velocity was 0.833m/s, and the gap between up and down of rubber roller was 25mm, the diameter of camellia fruit above 25mm can be harvested by rotate rubber roller, the percentage of residual camellia fruits on the camellia branches was 13.6%. What’s more, the damage of unopened camellia bud was bare, which verified the practicability of this prototype and provided the reference for the development of camellia fruit picking machine.