Abstract:With the aim to verify the feasibility of cutting peduncles with laser beam in harvesting robot, several laser drilling and cutting experiments of cucumber peduncles were conducted with a 30W fiber-coupled semiconductor laser in view of different factors. It was found that the laser focusing spot with heat power density of only 0.75W/mm2 could drill through a cucumber peduncle, and a successful drilling could be achieved even if diameter of peduncles, defocusing distance, or incident angle of laser beam changed within a large range. However, 23.73~28.13s was necessary to cut a cucumber peduncle when pointing a 14.94W semiconductor laser beam vertically without any defocus at the peduncle surface. It is not an ideal vaporizing but a burning process to cut peduncles attributed to the much worse beam quality of semiconductor laser, and it is believed that a Nd:YAG or fiber laser can achieve high speed cutting of peduncles, which can supply 102~103 times higher heat power density of focusing spot.