JP2012235712A - Automatic mower with mowing situation monitoring function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic mower with a mowing situation monitoring function for monitoring a mowing situation while traveling.SOLUTION: The automatic mower of an autonomous travel type, having various sensor including at least a position detecting means, includes: an actuator for automatically operating at least one of the driving system (accelerator), the braking system (brake), and the steering system (steering) of a traveling vehicle; a traveling control unit for moving the traveling vehicle to a target point by the actuator; a cutting part for mowing along a road surface; an image processing unit for determining the mowing situation; a calculation unit for performing various calculations to control each unit based on the information of a sensor and processing corresponding to the calculations; and a radio communication means for remotely controlling a traveling vehicle by wireless communication through the calculation unit and the traveling control unit.

Description

  The present invention relates to an automatic lawnmower having a lawn mowing situation monitoring function, and more specifically, an autonomous traveling type lawn mowing situation monitoring function capable of performing unmanned work corresponding to obstacles by accurately grasping position information. The present invention relates to an automatic lawn mower having

  In order to maintain the lawn condition in golf courses, parks, soccer fields, etc., regular mowing is necessary. Especially in a large place such as a golf course, it takes a lot of labor and cost. Therefore, for example, a lawn mower capable of selecting manual operation and automatic operation as in Patent Document 1 and an unmanned lawn mower having an autonomous navigation device as in Patent Document 2 are disclosed.

  However, there are some problems with conventional unmanned lawn mowers that perform automatic operation. For example, if there are steps such as holes or depressions on the road surface, avoid those points if you can assume them in advance. It was handled by a method such as programming, but there was a problem that it was not possible to deal with the hole that was made immediately before, and that mowing was not performed normally in automatic operation.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-128044 JP 9-37610 A

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to enable autonomous traveling flexibly corresponding to a traveling route by a preset program or learning function. Another object of the present invention is to provide an automatic lawn mower having a lawn mowing condition monitoring function capable of monitoring the lawn mowing condition while traveling.

  An automatic lawn mower having a lawn mowing condition monitoring function of the present invention made to achieve the above object is an autonomous traveling type automatic lawn mower having at least various sensors including a position detection means, An actuator for automatically operating at least one of a drive system (accelerator), a braking system (brake), and a steering system (steering), and a travel control unit for moving the traveling vehicle to a target point by the actuator; A cutting unit for mowing the lawn along the road surface, an image processing unit for judging the lawn mowing situation, various operations for controlling each unit based on the information of the sensor, and processes corresponding to the operations Wireless communication for remotely operating a traveling vehicle via the arithmetic unit and the traveling control unit by wireless communication Characterized in that it comprises a stage, a.

In the automatic lawn mower having the lawn mowing condition monitoring function of the present invention, when it is determined that there is an abnormality based on the information of the sensor, the interlock that controls the traveling control unit directly without using the control unit and makes an emergency stop A section.
The control unit has learning means for storing a travel route of the traveling vehicle based on the position information by the position detection means and the encoder information of the vehicle, and autonomously traveling based on the stored position information and traveling information.
The image processing unit captures a turf image captured by a camera, separates the captured image into three colors and extracts a predetermined color component, and then emphasizes the turf cut by edge processing to provide information on the turf cut Based on the above, it is determined whether or not the pattern has been properly cut by pattern matching. At this time, the image processing unit separates the captured image into three colors and extracts predetermined color components, and then performs shading processing with luminance correction and shading, and removes high-frequency components and performs pixel processing by morphology processing. The edge processing may be performed after performing the interval calculation.
The control unit stops the driving of the traveling vehicle when it is determined that the turf has not been cut normally through the image processing unit, and sends the pre-registered mail address via the wireless communication means. Notification may be made by e-mail.

  According to the automatic lawn mower having the lawn mowing condition monitoring function of the present invention, it is possible to perform autonomous driving corresponding to the movement route by learning the traveling pattern, to enable unmanned automatic driving, and to Monitors the cutting situation and notifies you that the blade needs to be replaced when it is not cutting properly, so you can reduce the labor and expenses required for mowing and accurately perform lawn mowing by automatic operation. be able to.

1 is an external view of an automatic lawn mower according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic block diagram of the automatic lawn mower by one Embodiment of this invention. It is drawing for demonstrating the movement pattern of the automatic lawn mower by one Embodiment of this invention. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the movement pattern shown in FIG. It is explanatory drawing for processing the movement pattern of the automatic lawn mower by one Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing of a process of the arithmetic unit which processes the movement pattern shown in FIG. It is drawing for demonstrating the motion of the vehicle body by the movement command shown in FIG. It is drawing for demonstrating the motion of the actuator by the movement command shown in FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the obstacle sensor of the automatic mower by one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement outline | summary of the automatic lawn mower by one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 11 is a processing flowchart of the image processing shown in FIG. 10.

  Hereinafter, a specific example of an embodiment for carrying out an automatic lawn mower having a lawn mowing condition monitoring function of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an external view of an automatic lawn mower according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic lawn mower according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 1, an automatic lawn mower 1 according to the present embodiment communicates with a cutting unit 2 for mowing the lawn and a base station to acquire data from an RTK-GPS reference station, perform remote operation, and exchange information. Small area radio 11 for performing, GPS receiver 12 for acquiring position information, operation / setting touch panel 13 with display screen, laser sensor 14 and ultrasonic sensor 15 used as obstacle sensors, angle information 3D gyro sensor 17 that senses the orientation and inclination of the vehicle body and uses it for position correction, inputs various sensor information, performs arithmetic processing, and shoots the cut turf surface with a CPU that performs various controls. A camera 23 for monitoring the lawn mowing situation, and an image processing unit 2 for performing image processing for judging that the lawn has been normally cut based on the captured image taken by the camera 23 , (In the case of electric motor used traveling control unit 41) traveling control unit 31 for moving the vehicle to the target point comprises an encoder 32 for monitoring the running state by detecting the rotation of the wheel.

  In addition to this, the automatic lawn mower 1 also includes an RFID reader 16, a bumper sensor 18, an emergency stop button 19, and an image processing unit 24 for obtaining a prohibited entry area and a position correction value, as shown in FIG. When an abnormal signal is detected, the travel control unit 31 is directly controlled without using the arithmetic unit 21 to perform an emergency stop, the interlock unit 25, the engine speed, the steering angle, travel information such as the vehicle speed by the encoder 32, and the GPS receiver 12 Position information, correction information from the 3D gyro sensor 17 and the like, and a steering system (steering) and drive system for automatic driving controlled by the traveling control unit 31 based on information calculated from the arithmetic unit 21 (Throttle: Accelerator), brake system (brake) actuators 33, 34, 35, and power supply to the electrical system That a battery 27 and the like DC / DC converter 28 that generates various power supply voltages. Furthermore, the automatic lawn mower 1 has various voltage input / output interfaces such as a voltage detector for monitoring the voltage of each unit and a thermal protector, memory card, USB, RS232C, etc. that detects abnormal temperature of each unit and stops power supply. You may prepare. Although not shown, the cutting unit 2 includes a mechanism unit that drives the rotation of the blade, and is controlled by the arithmetic unit 21 or the travel control unit 31.

  Referring to FIG. 2, the arithmetic unit 21 includes an imaging from a small area radio 11, a GPS receiver 12, a touch panel 13, a laser sensor 14, an ultrasonic sensor 15, an RFID reader 16, a 3D gyro sensor 17, and a camera 23. In addition to the image processing unit 24 that processes data, monitor lamps and alarms used for responses for various settings, warnings, alerts, and the like are connected (not shown), and the interlock unit 25 includes a 3D gyro sensor 17, The bumper sensor 18, the emergency stop button 19, and the image processing unit 24 are connected. The traveling control units 31 and 41 are connected to the arithmetic unit 21 and the interlock unit 25.

  The arithmetic unit 21 is a digital and analog integrated peripheral circuit including various functions such as a CPU that controls the entire processing, a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) for digital signal processing, and various input / output (I / O) interfaces. An ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), a ROM including a non-volatile flash memory for storing a control program and various data, a RAM used as a temporary storage for a work area at the time of calculation, and the like are not the gist of the present invention. And the configuration drawings are omitted.

  For example, the small area wireless device 11 can remotely control the automatic lawn mower 1 via a base station (not shown) provided in a golf clubhouse or the like, or can learn information learned by the automatic lawn mower. It is used for transmitting and receiving information by communicating with a communication terminal such as a PC (personal computer) connected to a communication network via a base station or a base station.

  The GPS receiver 12 receives RTK (realtime kinematic) RTK-GPS reception capable of precise positioning at the cm level by obtaining an error at the reference station (RTK-GPS reference station) from the number and phase of carrier waves and notifying the mobile station. Use the machine.

  In this embodiment, a wide area of about 1 km is covered using a small area radio as a communication method between a base station (or a GPS reference station) and a mobile station (automatic mower 1). In the case of RTK-GPS, correction data of 160 bytes / second is normally sent from the GPS reference station, and when the correction data is sent as it is, there are cases where data cannot be sent if the transmission speed is low. Without dividing the RTK-GPS dedicated communication line and other data communication lines, the WGS-84 world geodetic system coordinates are divided into 2 km x 2 km areas, converted to offset coordinates with the lower left as the origin, and bytes By reducing the number from 4 bytes to 2 bytes and performing data compression, the 160-byte correction data is reduced to about 50 bytes. By this processing, the communication time can be shortened, and operation status data can be transmitted and received between the automatic mower 1 and the base station.

  The touch panel 13 is an integrated touch switch for inputting / outputting various information for allowing the automatic lawnmower 1 to learn a travel route and enable autonomous travel and a monitor screen for displaying the information. Yes, it is desirable to have a waterproof / drip-proof structure such as a rain protection cover for outdoor use.

  The laser sensor 14 uses an infrared laser or the like, and the ultrasonic sensor 15 uses an ultrasonic wave to observe the reflected wave, and is used as an obstacle sensor that detects a person, an object, a tree, a step, or the like. The obstacle sensor determines that the obstacle is an obstacle based on information on either or both of the laser sensor 14 and the ultrasonic sensor 15, and determines its position, distance, and direction.

  The RFID reader 16 uses weak radio, and has an RFID tag built in a rope or the like to set a prohibited entry area to detect this, or installs an RFID tag in which latitude and longitude information is embedded in a fixed point in advance. It is used to acquire a correction value of position information.

  The 3D (three-dimensional) gyro sensor 17 detects angular velocities (roll, pitch, yaw) of the X (horizontal horizontal), Y (horizontal vertical), and Z (vertical) axes. The 3D gyro sensor 17 is a mechanical type (rate) gyro or a vibrating gyroscope using a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) silicon vibrator ring, etc., which can detect angular information with a small size. Based on the direction and inclination of the vehicle body, it is used for position correction. The angle can be calculated by integrating the angular velocity. The 3D gyro sensor 17 can also be used as an impact detection sensor as will be described later. In order to interpolate the function of the 3D gyro sensor 17, a multi-axis geomagnetic sensor (electronic compass) using a Hall element or the like, a semiconductor multi-axis acceleration sensor using MEMS, or the like may be used in combination.

  The image processing unit 24 captures a lawn mowing situation with a CCD or CMOS type camera 23, and determines whether or not the lawn mowing has been performed normally, as will be described later, based on a captured image of the lawn surface. Further, a communication terminal connected to a base station via the small area radio 11 is transmitted to the arithmetic unit 21 and displayed on the touch panel 13 by monitoring a lawn mowing situation during traveling or processing results of the photographed lawn surface. Send to.

  The interlock unit 25 controls the travel control units 31 and 41 directly without using the arithmetic unit 21 and stops them immediately in the case of an abnormality such as a case where a tilt, a fall, or a collision that exceeds the regulation of the vehicle body during travel is detected. A 3D gyro sensor 17, a bumper sensor 18, an emergency stop button 19, and an image processing unit 24 that have an emergency stop function and detect abnormal situations are connected. As a function of the interlock unit 25, an emergency stop may be performed by detecting that a foreign object is caught in the cutting unit 2.

  The bumper sensor 18 is attached to the front and rear portions of the vehicle body and used to detect that the vehicle body has touched some object, and the emergency stop button is used to perform an emergency stop during manual operation. An abnormal approach of the vehicle body to an obstacle or the like can also be detected using the laser sensor 14 or the ultrasonic sensor 15, and in this case, since it can be detected in advance before contacting the obstacle, it can be processed by the arithmetic unit 21. It is enough. Alternatively, the operation status of the automatic lawn mower may be constantly transmitted to the base station, and when an abnormality is detected, the travel of the automatic lawn mower 1 may be stopped remotely from the base station.

  The image processing unit 24 makes an emergency stop through the interlock unit 25 when it is determined that lawn mowing has not been normally performed based on the captured image of the cut grass surface, and at the same time, the touch panel 13 or Notification is given by a warning alarm, and the communication terminal connected to the base station is notified that the blade of the cutting unit 2 is worn or damaged, and prompts the blade to be replaced. At that time, the abnormality information may be transmitted to a pre-registered mail address.

  The traveling control unit 31 is a unit for controlling a traveling system for remodeling a commercially available riding lawn mower of a gasoline engine type and moving the vehicle to a target point by autonomous traveling. , Information such as the steering angle and the signal of the encoder 32 that detects the rotation of the wheel is input and provided to the arithmetic unit 21, and based on the information from the arithmetic unit 21 corrected based on the traveling information, the vehicle A steering actuator 33 for automatically operating a steering system (steering or steering wheel), a throttle actuator 34 for automatically operating a driving system (accelerator or throttle), and a brake actuator 35 for automatically operating a braking system (brake) Control and adjust the speed and direction angle to drive the vehicle.

  The travel control unit (motor controller driver) 41 corresponds to an electric motor type lawn mower and is a replacement of the conventional motor drive units of the left and right drive motors 42 and 43 and the steering motor 44. It communicates with the unit 21 and feeds back rotation signals from the encoders provided on the left and right wheels and the steering to the arithmetic unit 21, and based on the result calculated by the arithmetic unit 21, the left and right drive motors 42 and 43, and the steering The motor 44 is controlled and driven.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a movement pattern of the automatic mower according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory diagram of the movement pattern shown in FIG.

  Referring to FIG. 3, the movement pattern of the automatic lawn mower 1 is obtained by first tracing the movement route by using the learning function and storing the latitude / longitude position information and the traveling information such as direction, speed, angle, etc. The lawnmower 1 is automatically operated based on the stored position information and learning data of the traveling information during autonomous traveling. The travel route is stored based on the map coordinates acquired by the GPS receiver 12 or the like. By designating the outer circumference from the map, the optimum route inside the map may be automatically calculated and acquired.

  Referring to FIG. 4, the automatic lawn mower 1 acquires the current location from the RTK-GPS reception data from the GPS receiver 12 at the time of activation. If GPS reception is not possible, edit the information such as position and traveling direction with a communication terminal connected to the base station in advance and transfer it to the automatic lawn mower 1 as map data, or store a memory card or the like. Use to memorize directly. The automatic mower 1 traces the movement route using a movement pattern in which coordinate data of a passing point (target point) on the map is stored.

  In the case of RTK-GPS, it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to start positioning, so if the GPS data is interrupted for some reason, the automatic mower 1 will stop operating. The azimuth angle is acquired by the 3D gyro sensor 17 so that the latitude and longitude data can be acquired even when the GPS signal is interrupted, and the azimuth and movement distance data are created using the rotation speed and the rotation difference acquired from the encoder 32 or the like. . As a result, unmanned work is possible, and rainy weather can be used when a waterproof structure is adopted.

  During movement, the data from the 3D gyro sensor 17 is integrated and continuously stored, and the automatic lawn mower 1 is moved so as to obtain the current position of the automatic lawn mower 1 and correct the deviation from the stored coordinates. . At this time, the movement distance is obtained by counting the pulses from the encoder 32 and the like, thereby improving the accuracy of the movement data. On the monitor screen of the touch panel 13 of the automatic lawn mower 1 or the map screen displayed on the communication terminal connected to the base station via the small area radio device 11, the travel locus corrected with the map data is displayed. The As shown in FIG. 4, the deviation may be corrected using a geomagnetic sensor.

  FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for processing the movement pattern of the automatic mower according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram of processing of the arithmetic unit for processing the movement pattern shown in FIG. is there. 7 is a drawing for explaining the movement of the vehicle body by the movement command shown in FIG. 6, and FIG. 8 is a drawing for explaining the movement of the actuator by the movement command shown in FIG.

  Referring to FIG. 5, first, a movement pattern in which coordinate data of a passing point is stored by editing information such as a position and a traveling direction based on map data in advance by a PC or the like is set, and a plurality of movement target points are set. . At that time, it is also possible to automatically calculate the optimum route inside by specifying the outer periphery from the map. When creating an automatic route, the position coordinates and range of an obstacle are set in advance, and a movement route is set to avoid the obstacle. A description of the optimization model is omitted. The created movement pattern is transferred to the automatic lawn mower 1 from a communication terminal such as a PC connected to the base station via the small area radio 11 and stored, or directly stored using a memory card or the like. The automatic lawn mower 1 traces the movement path by repeating the operation of moving between the current movement target point and the next movement target point.

  Referring to FIG. 6, the arithmetic unit 21 sets the next movement target point and corrects the drive axis movement command based on the current location information from various sensors such as the GPS receiver 12, the 3D gyro sensor 17, and the encoder 32. Then, it is transmitted to the traveling control unit 31 as a movement command for controlling the drive system toward the movement target position.

  More specifically, the arithmetic unit 21 inputs latitude / longitude data from the GPS receiver 12 and azimuth data and X, Y, and Z angle data from the 3D gyro sensor 17, respectively, and the engine speed, vehicle speed signal, steering angle, Then, the current position and the moving direction of the automatic mower 1 are acquired by correcting based on the traveling information from the encoder 32, and the control command is calculated by comparing the data of the set moving target point and the acquired current data value. The horizontal component (X-axis direction) and vertical component (Z-axis direction) in the traveling direction are sampled at the pitch angle of the Y-axis that is orthogonal to the traveling direction, and the distance error due to the tilt component is corrected. Once converted into a distance or speed component, it is further corrected based on travel information from the encoder 32, etc., sampled again, and transmitted to the travel control unit 31. If there is an error in the movement position, the steering actuator 33 is controlled so as to approach the movement target value to correct the movement direction. The relative azimuth is obtained by acquiring the rotational speeds of the left and right drive shafts from the encoder 32, and the engine rotational speed, the vehicle speed signal, the steering angle, and the data acquired from the encoder 32 are used as correction values.

  Referring to FIG. 7, the traveling control unit 31 receives a movement command, controls the steering actuator 33 to determine the traveling direction, and controls the throttle actuator 34 or the brake actuator to move the vehicle body. Although FIG. 7 shows an example in which the direction of the rear tire that is the driving wheel is changed by the control of the steering actuator 33, the direction may be determined by changing the direction of the front tire, or the driving wheel may be the front wheel. good.

  Referring to FIG. 8, the traveling control unit 31 operates the accelerator by controlling the throttle actuator in accordance with the received movement command to advance the vehicle body, and operates the brake by controlling the brake actuator to stop the vehicle body. Under the control of 33, the steering wheel is operated to determine the traveling direction, and the vehicle body is advanced toward the movement target point.

  FIG. 9 is an explanatory view of the operation of the obstacle sensor of the automatic mower according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 9, the automatic mower 1 detects an obstacle such as a person, an object, or a tree existing on the movement target path by an obstacle sensor using a laser sensor 14 or an ultrasonic sensor 15. It waits for a predetermined time until it is removed, and when it is stored in advance as route data or after a predetermined time elapses, it bypasses to avoid a collision. The obstacle sensor detects the obstacle by measuring the reflected light or the reflected wave, and measures the distance to the obstacle. The level difference on the road surface of the travel route is determined by measuring the distance from the reflection of laser light or ultrasonic waves irradiated at predetermined angles (θ1, θ2) and measuring the difference in reflection distance from the flat surface.

  In order to recognize the difference from an obstacle or when the RFID tag 16 detects the weak RFID signal at a fixed point provided at a key point, the RFID reader 16 determines that it is a no-entry zone and detours. Latitude / longitude data is acquired and the position is corrected. An exclusive rope or the like is used in the restricted entry area, and IC tags are embedded inside the rope at intervals of 50 cm, for example, and the information of the IC tag is read by the RFID antenna attached to the automatic lawn mower 1.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an outline of the operation of the automatic mower according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 11 is a processing flowchart of the image processing shown in FIG.

  Referring to FIG. 10, the engine of the automatic lawn mower 1 that has been able to trace the movement route in advance by manual driving or the like to learn the route or store the map data of the traveling route and enable autonomous traveling can be used as a base station. Start with a command such as At this time, image processing for monitoring the lawn mowing situation is not performed in the case of automatic driving by autonomous driving, that is, in the case of manual driving (steps S101 and S102).

  In the case of automatic driving, automatic lawn mowing by autonomous driving is started (step S103), and the vehicle is advanced toward the next moving target point based on the learned driving route to perform automatic lawn mowing (step S104). When the movement target point is reached, it is determined whether or not the final movement target point has been reached. If automatic driving is terminated, automatic mowing is terminated. At this time, the engine may be stopped on the spot, or the vehicle body may be moved to a predetermined location without operating the cutting unit and mowing the lawn.

  In the case of automatic driving, it is determined whether or not a predetermined inspection point such as a moving target point or its intermediate point has been reached during traveling (step S106). When the inspection point is reached, automatic driving is temporarily stopped. (Step S107), otherwise, the lawn mowing automatic operation is continued.

  The automatic lawn mower 1 that has reached the inspection point photographs the lawn surface after traveling with the camera 23 attached to the rear of the vehicle body, and the image processing unit 24 performs image processing on the photographed lawn surface (step S108). It is determined whether or not the turf has been trimmed normally (step S109). Information determined to be normal by the image processing unit 24 is notified to the arithmetic unit 21, and the arithmetic unit 21 controls the travel control unit 31 to move the vehicle body toward the next movement target point and resume automatic mowing. . Note that if it is immediately determined whether lawn mowing has been performed normally without requiring time for image processing, the temporary stop of step S107 is not necessary.

  As a result of the image processing, when it is determined that the image processing unit 24 is not normal, the image processing unit 24 directly controls the traveling control unit 31 via the interlock unit, sets the automatic lawn mower 1 in the emergency stop mode, and outputs from the arithmetic unit 21. The travel control is blocked and the arithmetic unit 21 is notified. When mowing is not performed normally, the arithmetic unit 21 notifies the base station via the small area radio 11 (step S110), and the blade of the cutting unit 2 is worn or damaged. Encourage blade replacement. The base station that has received the notification that the grass has not been mowed normally may send an e-mail to a pre-registered mail address to warn.

  Finally, the contents of the image processing in step S108 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

  Referring to FIG. 11, in image processing, first, lens aberration such as coloring, blurring, and distortion of an image formed by a lens is corrected (step S201), and an image of the cut grass surface is converted into three channels (R, Only the color components necessary for the determination are extracted (step S202).

  Next, the position of the light source (sun) is obtained based on the date and time of lawn mowing for the extracted image of the turf surface with the color component, and the shadow of the reference image previously captured by the shading process is calculated. After correcting or adding the difference (step S203), the image is subjected to frequency analysis by two-dimensional Fourier transform, and noise such as discontinuous components is removed by smoothing (smoothing) processing or the like (step S204).

  Next, “expansion” processing that expands one pixel by performing an OR operation between adjacent pixels, and “shrinkage (or erosion)” that performs AND operation between adjacent pixels and contracts by one pixel with respect to a graphic in the image. The processing is combined several times, and an inter-pixel operation is performed by a morphology process that smoothes the image and removes isolated points (step S205). Morphological processing includes opening processing that removes small pixels around a figure by performing expansion processing several times after performing contraction processing, and performing contraction processing several times after performing expansion processing several times. There is a closing process for filling a missing portion of a pixel of a graphic and interpolating a pixel of a discontinuous portion, which are appropriately selected or combined for use.

  Finally, edge processing is performed to emphasize the cut surface of the turf (step S206), and pattern matching is performed to compare the pre-registered reference image of the turf cut with the captured cut image of the cut ( In step S207), if they match, it is determined as normal, and otherwise, it is determined as an error that is not normally cut (step S208).

  The embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the technical scope of the present invention. Is possible.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Automatic lawn mower 2 Cutting part 11 Small area radio | wireless machine 12 GPS receiver 13 Touch panel 14 Laser sensor 15 Ultrasonic sensor 16 RFID reader 17 3D gyro sensor 18 Bumper sensor 19 Emergency stop button 21 Arithmetic unit 23 Camera 24 Image processing part 25 Interlock section 27 Battery 28 DC / DC converter 31, 41 Travel control unit 32 Encoder 33, 34, 35 Actuator 42, 43 Drive motor 44 Steering motor

Claims (6)

An autonomously traveling automatic lawn mower having various sensors including at least position detecting means,
An actuator for automatically operating at least one of a driving system (accelerator), a braking system (brake), and a steering system (steering) of the traveling vehicle;
A traveling control unit for moving the traveling vehicle to a target point by the actuator;
A cutting section for mowing the lawn along the road surface,
An image processing unit for judging the lawn mowing situation;
Various arithmetic units for controlling each unit based on the information of the sensor and an arithmetic unit for performing processing corresponding to the arithmetic,
And an automatic lawn mower having a lawn mowing condition monitoring function, comprising: wireless communication means for remotely operating a traveling vehicle by wireless communication via the arithmetic unit and the traveling control unit.   The lawn according to claim 1, further comprising an interlock unit that controls the traveling control unit directly without using the control unit to make an emergency stop when the abnormality is determined based on the information of the sensor. Automatic lawn mower with a mowing condition monitoring function.   The control unit has a learning means for storing a travel route of the traveling vehicle based on the position information obtained by the position detecting means and the encoder information of the vehicle, and autonomously traveling based on the stored position information and traveling information. An automatic lawn mower having a lawn mowing condition monitoring function according to claim 1.   The image processing unit captures a turf image captured by a camera, separates the captured image into three colors and extracts a predetermined color component, and then emphasizes the turf cut by edge processing to provide information on the turf cut 2. An automatic lawn mower having a lawn mowing status monitoring function according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not it has been normally cut by pattern matching based on the above.   The image processing unit separates the captured image into three colors and extracts predetermined color components, and then performs shading processing with luminance correction and shading, and performs inter-pixel calculation by removing high frequency components and performing morphology processing. 5. The automatic lawn mower having a lawn mowing condition monitoring function according to claim 4, wherein edge processing is performed after the process.   The control unit stops the driving of the traveling vehicle when it is determined that the lawn has not been cut normally through the image processing unit, and sends e-mail to the pre-registered mail address via the wireless communication means. The automatic lawn mower having a lawn mowing status monitoring function according to claim 4, wherein the lawn mower is monitored by using the automatic lawn mower.

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