Abstract: In this paper, the picking robot system is studied. The existing picking robot uses CCD for image recognition and acquisition. The accuracy and speed of data acquisition have certain limitations. In order to solve this problem, a visual system of picking robot is constructed based on friendly man-machine interface. Laser rangefinder is used as data acquisition device of visual system, and motion control system is used to realize displacement change of laser rangefinder. Upper computer is selected for real-time data processing. Based on the construction of visual system, the actual detection experiment was carried out with the orchard as the target. Data were collected at different distances from the visual system to the picking object, and the contour curves of apples under different distances were drawn. At the same time, the recognition degree of the visual system to the fruit trees in the environment was obtained. The experimental data show that with the increase of distance, the detection accuracy of the vision system for Apple contour decreases gradually, and the recognition degree of the harvesting environment is the highest at 200 mm.