Abstract: To address the problems of low removal rate and high damage rate in mechanized safflower harvesting, a serrated dispersed-cutting end effector was designed for a safflower harvesting robot, aiming to achieve low-damage and high-efficiency harvesting of safflower filaments. The end effector mainly adopts a double-rocker mechanism as its primary structural framework. A conical flower-aligning port is employed to constrain the position of the fruit ball, while negative-pressure airflow is applied to assist in gathering the scattered filaments into the centralized cutting zone. A serrated dispersed-cutting single-edge blade is used to reduce filament damage by dispersing the cutting force through multiple sequentially engaging serrations rather than applying a concentrated continuous load along a single cutting edge. Based on the physical characteristics of the "Jinhong No. 8" safflower cultivar, the key structural parameters were determined as follows: the conical flower-aligning port diameter and cutter spacing were both 40 mm, the cutter length was 30 mm, the cutter width was 50 mm, and the cutter thickness was 2 mm, with a 4 mm over-cut margin reserved to prevent incomplete cutting. A kinematic model of the double-rocker mechanism was established, and the position, velocity, and acceleration equations of key hinge points were derived. A mechanical model of the shearing mechanism was developed to quantify the force transmission from the driving motor to the blade edges. The mapping relationship between motor speed and cutting velocity was established, showing that motor speeds of 400～800 r/min corresponded to cutting velocities of 0.15～0.35 m/s. The link lengths were optimized via a genetic algorithm to 35 mm, 68 mm, and 52 mm, ensuring that the cutting force met the peak demand while avoiding mechanism dead points. The minimum motor thrust was calculated to be 170.56 N. Based on ANSYS Fluent flow-field simulations, the airflow distribution characteristics within the harvesting chamber were analyzed under various negative-pressure airflow velocity conditions, and a suitable airflow velocity range of 3～5 m/s was determined as the optimal operating condition for stable and efficient filament collection. A three-factor, five-level quadratic orthogonal rotation combination experiment was conducted to optimize the operating parameters, taking the airflow velocity at the harvesting port, motor speed, and serrated tooth pitch as the key influencing factors, and the filament removal rate and damage rate as the response indicators. A regression model was established and verified using Design-Expert software. The variance analysis showed that the regression model was highly significant (P<0.01), and the lack-of-fit term was not significant (P>0.05). The optimal parameter combination was obtained as follows: airflow velocity of 4.2 m/s, motor speed of 582.6 r/min, and serrated tooth pitch of 2.0 mm. Field validation tests were conducted from June 24 to July 18, 2025, at the Yunguang Safflower Planting Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Xinjiang, China, using the "Jinhong No. 8" cultivar at the full flowering stage. The test samples exhibited a filament moisture content of 61.55%, a fruit ball diameter of 21.86 mm, a neck constriction diameter of 2.9 mm, and a filament spread of 28.29 mm. Under the optimal parameters, the filament removal rate reached 90.68%, and the damage rate dropped to 5.06%. The relative error between measured and predicted values was less than 5%, confirming the excellent agreement and high reliability of the established predictive model. Compared with existing single-tooth cutting end effectors, the proposed end effector reduced the filament damage rate to 5.06% and maintained the removal rate above 90%. Through the synergistic mechanism of dispersive cutting and negative-pressure gathering, the proposed end effector successfully achieves low-damage harvesting in multi-filament clustered scenarios,providing important theoretical support and equipment reference for advancing mechanized safflower harvesting technology, with potential application to other soft and clustered economic crops.