High-yielding agriculture leads to dense straw cover (mulching). Soil-engaging tools for conservation tillage in these scenarios demand enhanced tool performance, e.g., improved soil penetration, reduced force requirement, better straw cutting and minimised soil disturbance. These interdependent and yet conflicting performances could not be easily realised with traditional tillage tools. Instead, biomimetic tool design could provide a compromised solution. A biomimetic disc mimicking the mole-rat’s claw was fabricated and evaluated in comparison with traditional discs (i.e. a plain and a notched disc) in straw-mulched soil. Soil bin tests on the 3 discs were conducted at 3 tillage depths (i.e. 40, 70 and 100 mm). Results showed that the biomimetic disc achieved 21.4 % reduction in vertical resistance and 28.7 % reduction in draught forces, as compared with the notched disc (P < 0.05). Besides, the biomimetic disc achieved 8.5 %, 23.9 % and 12.0 % higher straw-cutting efficiencies than the plain disc, and 4.9 %, 11.7 % and 10.2 % higher cutting-efficiencies than the notched disc, over the 40, 70- and 100-mm depths respectively. The biomimetic disc also had the least soil disturbance rates across all the 3 tillage depths. The improved performances of the biomimetic disc were due to its optimised soil-engaging profiles that mimic the smooth, continuous and efficient working mechanism of the mole-rat’s claw. The claw-shaped edges easily penetrate through densely mulched soil while avoiding tool-sliding over the straw, and achieves minimum soil disturbance. The biomimetic tool design thus presents a viable solution for the conflicting performance requirements by conservation tillage in intensive farming systems.

高产农业导致稻草覆盖率高（覆盖）。在这些情况下，用于保护性耕作的用于土壤的工具需要增强工具的性能，例如，提高土壤渗透性，减少力的需求，更好地割草和最大程度地减少土壤干扰。使用传统的耕作工具无法轻松实现这些相互依存而又相互矛盾的性能。相反，仿生工具设计可能会提供折衷的解决方案。在稻草覆盖的土壤中，制作了模仿the鼠爪的仿生圆盘，并与传统圆盘（即普通圆盘和有缺口的圆盘）进行了比较。在3个耕作深度（即40、70和100 mm）上对3个圆盘进行土壤箱测试。结果表明，仿生碟的垂直阻力降低了21.4％，牵引力降低了28.7％，与有缺口的椎间盘相比（P <0.05）。此外，在40、70和100倍的情况下，仿生圆盘的割草效率比普通圆盘高8.5％，23.9％和12.0％，比缺口圆盘高4.9％，11.7％和10.2％。 -mm深度。仿生盘在所有3个耕作深度上的土壤扰动率也最低。仿生碟的改进性能归因于其优化的土壤接触曲线，该曲线模仿了-鼠爪的光滑，连续和有效的工作机制。爪形边缘易于穿透稠密覆盖的土壤，同时避免工具在稻草上滑动，并最大限度地减少了土壤干扰。