Aim of study: This paper presents a mathematical modeling approach to redesign the reels of chickpea harvesters for harvest efficiency. Area of study: A prototype chickpea harvester was designed and evaluated on the Dooshan farm of the University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran. Material and methods: The strategy used for reducing harvesting losses derived from the dynamic study of the reel applied to the chickpea harvester. The machine was designed such that bats of a power take-off (PTO)-powered reel, in conjunction with passive fingers, harvest pods from anchored plants and throw the pods into a hopper. The trochoid trajectory of the reel bats concerning reel kinematic index, and plant height and spacing was determined for redesigning the reel. Main results: This kinematic design allowed an estimation of the reel orientation at the time of impact. The experimentally validated model offers an accurate and low computational cost method to redesign harvester reels. Research highlights: The new chickpea harvester implemented with a four fixed-bat reel, a height of 40 cm above the ground for the reel axis, and featuring a kinematic index of 2.4 was capable of harvesting pods with harvesting efficiency of over 70%; a significant improvement in harvesting performance
