Abstract: In order to solve the problem that the resistance of the digging shovel is too large during the digging process of panax notoginseng, the traditional plane digging shovel is optimized in this paper. Firstly, the soil parameters of panax notoginseng were tested, and the stacking angle of soil was obtained through discrete element simulation. By comparing with the test results, the accuracy of the selected soil parameters was verified. The discrete element software EDEM was used to establish the simulation model of the excavator, and the resistance of excavator during the excavation process was calculated. The comparison with the plane shovel proved that the structure can reduce the resistance of the excavator during the driving process. Then, taking the resistance in the process of moving as the index, the excavator is optimized, and the influence of parameters of the excavator, such as the radian of the shovel surface, the angle of the shovel tip, the distance between shovels, and the angle of penetration, on the excavation resistance is studied. The results show that when the radian of the shovel surface is 116°, the angle of the shovel tip is 120°, the distance between shovels is 86mm, and the angle of penetration is 12°, the excavation resistance is the minimum, which is 23.6% lower than that of the traditional excavation shovel. Finally, the optimized excavator is tested and verified, and the average error is 2.78%, within 5%, meeting the design requirements. The study provides a reference for the design of digging shovel for tuberous crops.