Aiming at the practical needs of mechanical peeling of lotus root, a rotary profiling peeling device is designed, which consists of a clamping rotary and reciprocating profiling cutting mechanism. The key components of the device, such as peeling knives, depth-limited support block and oscillating lever for peeling knives are analyzed theoretically. Peeling knives with rounded peeling knives, and the cutting angle is 31.87 ~ 36.81 °. It is determined that the shape of the depth-limited support block is rounded. The length of the cutter arm pendulum is 85mm. The ratio of the speed of the lotus root to the screw of the stepper motor is 0.51 ~ 1.03 Taking Elian No.5 as the object, the peeling uniformity and peeling loss rate as the test indexes, the Box-Behnken response surface test was carried out with lotus root speed, stepper motor speed and torsion spring diameter as the test factors. The optimal parameter combination was determined as lotus root speed 108 r / min, stepper motor speed 74 r / min, torsion spring diameter 1.6 mm. Under these conditions, the optimal parameter verification test was carried out, and the net removal rate of lotus root was ≥ 85 %, and the peeling loss rate was ≤ 11.6 %. The results of this study can provide a reference for the research design of lotus root peeling machinery.