JP2016187305A - Mobile agricultural machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mobile agricultural machine for autonomously travelling in a simple constitution.SOLUTION: A mobile agricultural machine has such a constitution that includes an infrared ray enclosure R enclosing a farm field along a ridge, a front measurement sensor 2 and right/left side measurement sensors 3L, 3R arranged on a front side and right/left side parts of a mobile agricultural machine 1 and measuring a distance to the infrared ray enclosure R and that enables a reciprocated traveling in the farm field by controlling traveling of the mobile agricultural machine 1 by means of the distance to the infrared ray enclosure R measured by the front measurement sensor 2 and right/left side measurement sensors 3L, 3R. At a start of traveling, a fixed interval to the infrared ray sensor enclosure R is kept by the right/left side measurement sensors 3L, 3R. When a predetermined distance to the infrared ray enclosure R is detected by the front measurement sensor 2 in forward traveling, the mobile agricultural machine is rotated to a side on which the infrared ray enclosure R is not detected by the right/left side measurement sensors 3L, 3R by 180 degrees.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile farm machine that autonomously travels a mobile farm machine such as a tractor that performs tillage work in a field, a combine that harvests grain, and a rice transplanter that performs rice planting work.

  As a mobile farm machine, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-20 discloses a published patent publication in which a reflector is provided along a ridge around a farm field and positioned higher than the cocoon, and a transmitted wave is transmitted from a receiver / transmitter of the mobile farm machine. In addition, an automatic control technique is described in which a reflected wave reflected from the reflecting plate is detected by a receiver / transmitter, a distance is measured, and a mobile work machine is caused to travel along the reflecting plate.

  Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-184410 discloses a mobile agricultural machine in which a guide cable is laid on a farm field and automatically travels while following the guide cable.

JP-A-8-20 JP-A-7-184410

  In the autopilot technology, it is difficult to provide a reflector around the heel, and the reflector installed over a long period of time is difficult to maintain the reflection function and may malfunction.

  In addition, automatic steering of a mobile agricultural machine using a guide cable, which will be described later, is troublesome to install and remove the guide cable.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an autopilot mobile farm machine in which preparation work for tools for performing autopilot and removal work at the end of the work are simple.

  The problems of the present invention are solved by the following technical means.

  The invention according to claim 1 is provided with an infrared enclosure R that surrounds the farm field along the ridge, and the front measurement sensor 2 that measures the distance to the infrared enclosure R on the front side and the left and right sides of the mobile agricultural machine 1 and the right and left side measurement. Sensors 3L and 3R are provided, and the traveling of the mobile agricultural machine 1 is controlled by the distance from the front measurement sensor 2 and the infrared enclosure R measured by the left and right side measurement sensors 3L and 3R to enable reciprocal travel in the field. A mobile agricultural machine.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, at the start of traveling, the left and right side measurement sensors 3L and 3R maintain a constant distance from the infrared enclosure R, and the forward measurement sensor 2 detects a predetermined distance from the infrared enclosure R during forward traveling. The mobile farm machine according to claim 1, wherein the left and right measurement sensors 3L and 3R turn 180 degrees to the side where the infrared enclosure R is not detected.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, the left and right side measurement sensors 3L and 3R do not detect the approach to the infrared enclosure R after the first turn after the start of running, and the front measurement sensor 2 has a predetermined relationship with the infrared enclosure R during forward running. When the distance is detected, the mobile farm machine according to claim 1 is turned 180 degrees in the opposite direction to the previous time.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when a predetermined distance from the infrared enclosure R of the previous measurement sensor 2 is detected, the left and right measurement sensors 3L and 3R on the next turning side continuously detect the approach to the infrared enclosure R. The mobile agricultural machine according to claim 1, which is stopped.

  In the invention according to claim 1, since the infrared enclosure R surrounding the farm along the fence can be formed by standing upright columns provided with infrared transmitters at each corner of the fence, installation and removal are facilitated. When the mobile farm machine 1 travels back and forth within the infrared enclosure R, autonomous traveling such as tillage, rice planting or combine harvesting work becomes possible.

  In the invention according to claim 2, the left and right side measurement sensors 3L and 3R keep traveling at a constant distance from the fence to prevent the mobile agricultural machine 1 from getting over the fence, and the front measurement sensor 2 is infrared when traveling forward. By detecting the predetermined distance to the enclosure RR, the vehicle turns in a direction away from the kite without exceeding the kite, so that the first reciprocating operation is performed autonomously.

  In the invention according to claim 3, the left measurement sensor 3L, 3R detects the predetermined distance from the infrared enclosure R at the center of the field where the approach to the ridge is not detected, and the forward measurement sensor 2 detects the predetermined distance when traveling forward. However, the reciprocating traveling is autonomously performed.

  In the invention according to claim 4, when the forward measurement sensor 2 tries to turn by detecting the approach of a predetermined distance with the infrared enclosure R during forward traveling, the left and right measurement sensors 3L and 3R on the turning side change the infrared enclosure R. If it is detected subsequent to the previous time, it may get over the kite, so it is possible to stop running and finish the work automatically.

It is a top view which shows the mobile agricultural machine of an agricultural field. It is a flowchart figure of automatic travel control. It is a running speed control figure of the mobile agricultural machine using a GPS function.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to examples shown in the drawings. In this specification, the left and right directions are referred to as left and right, respectively, in the forward direction of the mobile agricultural machine, the forward direction is referred to as forward, and the reverse direction is referred to as rear.

  The field ridge shown in FIG. 1 has a square shape, and a pillar having infrared light emitting receivers 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d attached to the upper end is set up at the corner of the ridge, and each infrared light emitting receiver 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d is infrared. The infrared enclosure R is constructed without leaking infrared rays by emitting and receiving. It should be noted that, even if the bag has a complicated shape other than a square, the infrared enclosure R can be configured by standing upright columns provided with infrared light emitting receivers at the corners.

  A mobile agricultural machine (for example, a tractor) 1 is allowed to enter the left corner of the field. This mobile agricultural machine 1 is provided with a front measurement sensor 2 on the front side of the machine body, and with a left measurement sensor 3L and a right measurement sensor 3R on the left and right sides of the machine body. The front measurement sensor 2, the left measurement sensor 3L, and the right measurement sensor 3R are sensors that detect infrared rays, and are turned on when the infrared rays approach a predetermined distance of, for example, 1 meter.

  When the mobile farm 1 is inserted into the position of the field shown in FIG. 1 and automatic traveling is started, the left measurement sensor 3L is turned on and travels straight in the state of approaching the left ridge to start tilling work.

  As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2, when the mobile agricultural machine 1 approaches the front hail and the front measurement sensor 2 is turned on, it stops, turns right, runs straight, continues tilling work, and the front measurement sensor 2 turns on again. Then, it stops and turns left, travels straight and continues tilling work, but the turning direction repeats alternately left and right.

  In this way, the vehicle reciprocates back and forth in the center of the left and right sides of the field, but when approaching the right heel, even if one of the left and right measurement sensors 3L, 3R is turned on once, it turns and maintains a predetermined distance from the heel. If you turn it on twice in a row, it stops running and finishes the work.

  When turning, if it is a tractor, the tilling rotary moves up and down, and if it is a combine, the cutting unit moves up and down automatically.

  Next, I will explain ideas that make it easier to use mobile agricultural machines such as tractors and combines.

  First, the mobile agricultural machine is equipped with a GPS function, the shape and area of the field are calculated from the route traveled by the mobile agricultural machine, and the optimal work route is calculated from the processing capacity of the mobile agricultural machine such as the tillage width and harvesting width as map data. It is preferable that the worker can efficiently work by displaying the optimum work route map stored and stored at the next work on the same field.

  Further, it is preferable to recognize the shape and area of the field with the GPS function and analyze and display the optimum work route so that the operator can be assisted or automatically operated. In this case, if the operator manually performs the steering operation, priority is given to the automatic piloting.

  Further, it is preferable to perform an atmospheric pressure correction or a cooling water boiling point correction based on the atmospheric pressure calculated from the altitude of the field obtained by the GPS function, the acceleration calculated from the moving speed of the airframe, or the like so that the engine is set to the optimum output condition.

  In addition, the mobile agricultural machine is provided with left and right and front and rear inclination sensors, and the inclination information acquired by the inclination sensor and the map information acquired by the GPS function are integrated and stored as dangerous inclination map information. It is possible to use the vehicle to travel safely by issuing an alarm or decelerating the traveling speed before passing the slope more than a predetermined amount during the next ground traveling. As shown in FIG. 3, before the inclination angle exceeds a predetermined inclination angle threshold value, a warning sound is sounded to reduce the traveling speed.

  In addition, it is preferable that the unmanned mobile farm machine is stopped by linking the unmanned mobile farm machine and the mobile terminal, sending defect information of the unmanned mobile farm machine to the mobile terminal, and pressing an emergency stop switch of the mobile terminal.

  It is also possible to install an automatic identification camera on an unmanned mobile agricultural machine and stop and notify the mobile terminal when an obstacle or person is found while traveling.

  In addition, the unmanned mobile agricultural machine is provided with a fuel monitoring function so that the remaining amount of fuel is reported to the mobile terminal before the fuel runs out, and the farm work is interrupted by the instruction from the mobile terminal so that the unmanned mobile farmer can move to the specified position. It is better to be able to refuel.

  In addition, if a mobile terminal is provided with a dedicated terminal or smart phone app for a mobile farmer operator and a problem occurs in the mobile farmer, the administrator or farmer dealer can be contacted or a repair reservation can be made using the dedicated terminal or smart phone. It is better to do so. The dedicated terminal or the smart phone is configured to display the location of the manager or the agricultural machine dealer, or display information such as the repair response time and the response order.

  Alternatively, an unmanned mobile agricultural machine equipped with a camera may be operated by an operator to circulate in the field so that the situation and topography of the field are learned.

1 Mobile farm machine 2 Front measurement sensor 3L Left measurement sensor 3R Right measurement sensor

Claims (4)

  A front measurement sensor (2) and a right and left side measurement sensor for measuring the distance to the infrared enclosure (R) on the front side and the left and right sides of the mobile farm machine (1) by providing an infrared enclosure (R) surrounding the field along the fence (3L) and (3R) are provided, and the traveling of the mobile agricultural machine (1) is controlled by the distance between the front measurement sensor (2) and the infrared enclosure (R) measured by the left and right side measurement sensors (3L) and (3R). A mobile agricultural machine that can reciprocate in the field.   The left and right side measurement sensors (3L) and (3R) hold a certain distance from the infrared enclosure R at the start of running, and the left and right sides when the front measurement sensor (2) detects a predetermined distance from the infrared enclosure (R) during forward running The mobile agricultural machine according to claim 1, wherein the side measurement sensors (3L) and (3R) turn 180 degrees to the side where the infrared enclosure R is not detected.   After the start of traveling and the first turn, the left and right side measurement sensors (3L), (3R) do not detect the approach to the infrared enclosure (R), and the forward measurement sensor (2) is in contact with the infrared enclosure (R) when traveling forward. The mobile agricultural machine according to claim 1, wherein when the predetermined distance is detected, the mobile farm machine turns 180 degrees in the opposite direction to the previous time.   When the left and right measurement sensors (3L) and (3R) on the next turning side detect the approach to the infrared enclosure (R) at the time of detecting a predetermined distance from the infrared enclosure (R) of the previous measurement sensor (2), The traveling agricultural machine according to claim 1, wherein traveling is stopped.

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