JP2002291316A - Control apparatus for power agricultural machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a control apparatus for a power agricultural machine, with which the length of a harness for connecting a controller to an input and output system is shortened, weight is reduced and a rope arrangement is facilitated. SOLUTION: A machine body is loaded with a plurality of controllers corresponding to an individual control function and the controllers are connected by high-speed communication lines. On the other hand, a part of input signal system of sensor or switch and a part of an output signal such as relay, solenoid, etc., are connected to the close controllers regardless of the control functions of the input and the output signal systems.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device for a power agricultural machine such as a combine, a tractor, and a rice transplanter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a power agricultural machine is provided with a control device for controlling the operation of a traveling unit and a working unit, and these are often controlled by a plurality of controllers.
In this case, sensors, switches, and actuators corresponding to the respective functions are connected to the controllers, and the controllers are configured to exchange data with each other by communication.

For example, in a combine, an inclination sensor for detecting the inclination of the machine body is connected to an input side of a controller for controlling a vehicle body horizontal control, and actuators such as a hydraulic cylinder for horizontally controlling a posture of the vehicle body are provided on an output side. The auger stroke sensor that detects the length of the auger and the potentiometer that detects the auger swivel angle are on the input side of the controller that controls the auger's attitude that discharges the grains stored in the Glen tank outside the machine Such sensors are connected to the output side, and actuators for controlling the auger posture and the auger expansion / contraction length are connected to the output side.

[0004]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional combine, a plurality of controllers are provided at appropriate positions on the body for each control function, and these controllers have various sensors and actuators corresponding to the respective control functions. The connection type was adopted.

For example, a direction sensor for detecting a deviation in the traveling direction of the aircraft and a hydraulic cylinder for controlling a side clutch for correcting the orientation of the aircraft are connected to a direction control controller installed at an appropriate position on the aircraft. Further, another controller for auger control employs a configuration in which a sensor or an actuator used only for the auger control is connected.

As described above, conventionally, a system in which a plurality of controllers classified by function and the corresponding input system and output system are connected by a long harness has been adopted. The distance from the sensor to the input system may be increased, or the distance from the actuator to the output system may be longer than necessary.As a result, the harness becomes longer and the weight becomes heavier or the distribution becomes longer. There was a problem that the rope itself became complicated.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention proposes to solve such a problem, and employs the following technical means. That is, according to the present invention, a plurality of controllers corresponding to individual control functions are mounted on the body, and each controller has a signal for its own controller related to the control function and has no relation to the control function. The control device for a power agricultural machine is configured to receive a signal for another controller and to transmit the received signal for another controller to another controller via a high-speed communication line.

Further, in the present invention according to claim 2, the data transmitted from each controller is provided with a unique identifier, and the power agricultural machine control device according to claim 1 is configured. According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the power agricultural machine according to the first or second aspect, wherein at least one controller and a meter having a display device are connected via a low-speed or high-speed communication line. Control device.

[0009]

When the engine is started and the work is started, each controller mounted on the body starts control according to the function of its own controller. That is, the controller that controls the auger control executes the auger turning control and the expansion / contraction control of the auger zoom, and the controller that controls the threshing, body leveling, and turning control executes threshing selection control, body leveling control, and spin mild control, respectively. In this case, each controller is connected not only to input / output systems such as switches, sensors, and actuators dedicated to the own controller, but also to input / output systems for other controllers. Therefore, of the control data transmitted from the other controller, only the data necessary for the own controller is read from the other controller via the high-speed communication line. At the same time, among the control data obtained by the switches and sensors connected to the own controller, the control data for the other controller is transmitted to the other controller via the high-speed communication line.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a combine 1 according to the present invention. A pair of left and right crawler-type running parts 3 and 3 are disposed below a body frame 2 of the combine 1, and a mowing part 4 is provided at a front end of the body frame 2. And a threshing unit 5 is provided immediately behind the reaping unit 4, and a straw processing unit 6 is provided immediately after the threshing unit 5, while an operating unit is provided on the right front of the body frame 2. 7 is provided, and a Glen tank 8 is provided immediately behind the operating unit 7. Reference numeral 9 denotes a feed chain provided on the upper left side of the threshing unit 5. The grain stalks mowed by the mowing unit 4 are sent to the threshing unit 5 via a vertical transport device and a feed chain 9, where the threshed grains are collected in a Glen tank 8, and the waste straw is processed by a straw processing unit. It is processed at 6 and discharged outside the machine.

The grains contained in the Glen tank 8 can be moved up and down, swiveled right and left and adjustable in length.
By 0, it is collected in a truck bed or a grain bag. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a relationship between a controller mounted on the combine 1 and various sensors and actuators.

Referring to FIG. 1, a specific configuration will be described. On the body frame 2 of the combine 1, a front controller 12, an intermediate controller 14, and a rear controller 16 are mounted in this order from the front of the body. The front controller 12 is a controller that controls a handling depth control, a body direction control, a cutting height control, and an engine rotation control. The front controller 12 includes not only control by the front controller 12 but also intermediate control. A solenoid valve 17 required for controlling the section controller 14 and the rear controller 16 and an operator seat switch 18 required for controlling the three controllers 12, 14, 16 are connected. The operation seat switch 18 includes a switch for turning the auger 10 and moving the auger 10 up and down. That is, the switches related to the rear controller 16 are also connected to the front controller 12. Further, the reaper sensor 19, the reaper relay 20,
An operation seat relay 21 and a meter 22 are connected to the front controller 12. The front controller 12 and the meter 22 having a display device are connected to the low-speed communication line 2.
4.

An intermediate controller 14 disposed in the center of the body controls threshing control, body level control, and spin mild control. The intermediate controller 14 includes a threshing sensor 26, a threshing control relay 27, A horizontal sensor 28 is connected. The threshing unit sensor 26 includes a selection sensor and a potentiometer for detecting the sheave angle, and the threshing control relay 27 includes a motor relay for adjusting the sheave angle.

A rear controller 1 is provided at the rear of the fuselage.
6 and the rear controller 16 has an auger 1
An auger sensor 29 for controlling 0 and an auger relay 30 are connected. Three controllers 12, 1
4 and 16 are connected via a high-speed communication line 33.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of one controller. The front controller 12, the middle controller 14, and the rear controller 16 all have the same communication function. Since all three controllers have the same hardware configuration, only the front controller 12 will be described. The front controller 12 is provided with a microcomputer 34 having a CPU. The microcomputer 34 is connected to an input interface 35 and an output interface 36. The input interface 35 has sensors, and the output interface 36 has a control actuator. Kind is connected. Furthermore, a communication data buffer 37 for temporarily storing communication data and a communication controller 38 are connected to the microcomputer 34.

The communication controller 38 has a transmission buffer 3
9 is connected to the transmission line 41 and the reception buffer 4
0 is connected to the receiving line 42. FIG. 4 is a main control flowchart relating to communication processing between the controllers 12, 14, and 16. FIG. 5 is a flowchart for reading a communication buffer, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart for writing a communication buffer.

4, the state of the sensors and switches connected to the microcomputer 34 is read by the controllers 12, 14, and 16 (step S1) and stored in the communication data buffer 37. The read data is written and the data to be transmitted to another controller is written (steps S2 and S3). Subsequently, control by the controller is performed. For example, in the case of the rear controller 16, auger turning control and auger zoom control are performed (step
S4) An output signal for control is output from the output interface 36 to the auger turning motor and the relay (step S5).

FIG. 7 shows the division of data transmitted and received by the controllers 12, 14, and 16. An identifier is given to the head part of the data of any of the controllers, and the control data and various data are transmitted together with the identifier and a CRC for checking an error of the transmitted data.
Is transmitted.

When receiving data transmitted from another controller, the receiving side uses the communication data buffer 37 as only necessary data with the identifier set in advance.
And the fetched data is controlled by a controller on the receiving side. FIG. 8 shows how the three controllers 12, 14, and 16 transmit data. Time is set on the horizontal axis, and data with a higher priority is transmitted from each controller at each time.

Since the controllers 12, 14, and 16 are set to have the same communication hardware configuration as described above, the communication programs can be made substantially the same, and the development cost can be reduced. Can contribute. Since the data is provided with the identifier, of the data transmitted from the other controllers, only the data necessary for the controller can be easily identified and taken into the communication data buffer 37. The communication process can be quickly performed without imposing a large burden on the process and with high reliability.

The respective controllers 12, 14, and 16 are connected by a high-speed communication line to execute individual control,
Since the front controller 12 is connected to the meter 22 via the low-speed communication line 24, it is possible to construct a display system with reduced cost. In the case where the meter 22 is formed of a liquid crystal display type and the display is switched quickly, the meter 22 and the front controller 12 may be connected by a high-speed line.

Next, the configuration of another embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the example shown below, information about the state of a powered agricultural machine is transmitted to a facility or a personal computer installed at an agricultural machine center using a telephone line network. In FIG. 8, three controllers 45, 46, and 47 are mounted on the combine 1, and the controllers are connected to each other via an in-vehicle LAN 48.
The PS receiving device 44 and the line connection device 49 are connected.

The line connection device 49 is connected to a personal computer 50 installed at the agricultural machine center via a line network 51. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of the controller 45. The microcomputer 55 of the controller 45 has a sensor 55 and a switch 5 via an input interface 53.
6 and the GPS receiver 44 are connected. LAN interface 5 provided separately from input interface 53
4, controllers 46 and 47 are connected. A solenoid 59 and a relay 60 are connected to the output side of the microcomputer 52 via an output interface 58.

As described above, since the GPS receiver 44 is mounted on the combine 1 and its position information is inputted to the personal computer 50 of the center via the network 51, the position of the combine 1 can be easily known. It can be convenient. FIG. 11 shows data transmitted from the combine 1 to the center. In the data to be transmitted, information relating to the fuel, information relating to the location, failure information indicating the cause and location of the failure, and the serial number of the combine are set, and the center and the combine 1 are connected via the network 51. As a result, the combine 1 can be immediately identified on the center side, and past data on the combine 1, for example, information on repair and inspection / maintenance can be searched at the center in a timely manner.

[0025]

The present invention is embodied in the form described above, and has the following effects. That is,
According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of controllers corresponding to individual control functions are mounted on the body, and each controller has a signal for its own controller related to the control function and a signal for another controller not related to the control function. The control device of the power agricultural machine is characterized in that it is configured to capture the signal and transmit the captured signal for the other controller to the other controller via the high-speed communication line. Instead, switches and sensors provided in various parts of the aircraft need only be connected to a controller close to them, which shortens the harness and reduces the weight,
Routing is also easier. Further, the invention of claim 2 is characterized in that the data transmitted from each controller is provided with a unique identifier, so that the controller on the receiving side only uses the data of the identifier set in advance for reception. Since it is sufficient to take in the data and take this data into the communication data buffer 37, the communication processing can be performed well without imposing too much load on the control processing. The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that at least one controller and a meter having a display device are connected via a low-speed or high-speed communication line.
Since it is a control device for the power farm machine described in the table, the use of a low-speed communication line makes it possible to construct a meter display system that does not require much high-speed operation at low cost. There is a feature that switching can be performed instantaneously even on the display.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a combine.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a relationship between controllers.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one controller.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a controller process.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of reading a communication buffer.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of communication buffer writing. .

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing contents of transmission / reception data.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart showing a state of data transmitted from each controller.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of another embodiment corresponding to FIG. 2;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing contents of data to be transmitted.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Combine 2 Body frame 3 Running part 4 Cutting part 5 Threshing part 6 Dust processing part 7 Operation part 8 Glen tank 9 Feed chain 10 Auger 12 Front controller 14 Intermediate controller 16 Rear controller 24 Low speed communication line 33 High speed communication line 34 Microcomputer 35 input interface 36 output interface 41 transmission line 42 reception line

Claims (3)

[Claims] A plurality of controllers corresponding to individual control functions are mounted on an airframe, and each controller transmits a signal for its own controller related to the control function and a signal for another controller not related to the control function. A control device for a power agricultural machine, wherein the control device is configured to take in and transmit the taken signal for another controller to another controller via a high-speed communication line. 2. The data transmitted from each controller is provided with a unique identifier.
The control device of the power farm machine according to 1. 3. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one controller and a meter having a display device are connected via a low-speed or high-speed communication line.
The control device of the power farm machine described in the above.