JP2022137544A - Levee travel device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a travel device that stably and safely travels a levee.SOLUTION: A levee travel device that travels on a levee has a cross section formed in a substantially trapezoidal shape. The levee travel device includes: a body part that travels on an upper surface of the levee; travel wheels provided in at least a right and left pair in the body part; and slope face contact bodies provided in outer sides of the right and left pair of travel wheels, configured to rotate coaxially with the travel wheels, and having an inclined face that contacts with the slope face of the levee.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a ridge travel device that travels along a ridge.

A ridge is something that forms a boundary between partitioned paddy fields and fields (agricultural fields). The standard is a trapezoid with a slope gradient of about 1:1 (see "Land Improvement Project Plan Design Standards and Operation/Explanation, published in April 2013" supervised by the Rural Development Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries).

As a conventional technology, there is known a work machine that performs mowing work while traveling on a ridge (see Patent Document 1 below). This working machine includes a main body provided with an operation handle, a traveling part provided in the main body, a mowing part provided in front of the main body, and running in contact with the slope of the ridge on the side of the main body. and guiding means for guiding the running direction of the part along the ridge.

JP 2018-130104 A

The above-mentioned conventional mowing work machine is operated by a worker holding an operation handle by hand while traveling on a ridge. Instead of running on the ridge, it is possible to carry out management work in the field (such as spraying chemicals and fertilizers) while driving along the ridge, and to carry out transportation work along the ridge, making farm work easier.・It will play an important role in improving efficiency.

However, when automatically traveling on the ridge, if the width of the upper surface of the ridge becomes narrow during travel, there is a possibility that part of the traveling part will come off the upper surface of the ridge. If the slope of the ridge is uneven, the guiding means may become unstable and hinder the straightness of the traveling section. In such a case, there is a risk that the work machine during automatic travel may fall from the ridge. In addition, when the field is filled with water, the working machine may be submerged and damaged. Therefore, there is a demand for a traveling device that can automatically travel stably and safely on a ridge.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed to deal with such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a traveling device that allows a vehicle to travel stably and safely on a ridge.

In order to solve such problems, the present invention has the following configurations.
A ridge traveling device that travels on a ridge whose cross section is formed in a substantially trapezoidal shape, comprising: a main body that travels on the upper surface of the ridge; and a slope contacting member provided outside the pair of left and right running wheels, rotating coaxially with the running wheels, and having an inclined surface contacting the slope of the ridge. Ridge traveling device.

Such a ridge travel device can automatically and stably and safely traverse the ridge by having the features described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The explanatory drawing ((a) is a top view and (b) is a front view) of the ridge traveling apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows an example of a traveling unit. Explanatory drawing which shows an example of a traveling unit. Explanatory drawing which shows an example of a traveling unit. Explanatory diagrams showing the interval adjusting mechanism of the traveling unit ((a) shows a state where the width W of the upper surface is wide, and (b) shows a state where the width W' of the upper surface is narrow). Explanatory diagrams showing the interval adjusting mechanism of the traveling unit ((a) shows a state where the width W of the upper surface is wide, and (b) shows a state where the width W' of the upper surface is narrow). Explanatory drawing which shows the space|interval adjustment mechanism of a driving|running|working unit ((a) is explanatory drawing of front view, (b) is explanatory drawing of planar view). Explanatory drawing which shows the structural example ((a) with a rib, (b) with a column part, (c) with a conical projection) of a slope grounding body. Explanatory drawing which shows the usage example of a ridge travel apparatus.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same reference numerals in different figures denote portions having the same function, and duplication of description in each figure will be omitted as appropriate.

As shown in FIG. 1, the ridge traveling device 1 is assumed to travel on a ridge R having a substantially trapezoidal cross section. At this time, the ridge R has a width (upper width) W of the upper surface R1 of 30 cm, a height H of 30 cm, and a slope A trapezoidal cross-sectional shape with a slope of R2 of about 1:1 is standard, but in cold regions, considering the necessity of deep water irrigation and collapse due to frost heave, the upper width W is up to 50 cm, and the height H is up to about 40 cm. making it bigger.

The ridge travel device 1 includes a main body 10 that travels on the upper surface R1 of the ridge R, at least a pair of left and right running wheels 11 provided on the main body 10 and in contact with the upper surface R1 of the ridge R, and a pair of left and right running wheels. 11, rotates coaxially with the running wheel 11, and has a slope contacting member 12 having an inclined surface 12a contacting the slope R2 of the ridge R. In the illustrated example, a pair of left and right running wheels 11 are provided on the front and rear sides of the main body 10 in the direction of travel (see FIG. 1(a)). The running wheels 11 are provided on one of the front and rear sides in the traveling direction, and the left and right running wheels that are not provided with the slope grounding bodies 12 are provided on the other front and rear sides of the traveling direction, or the slope grounding bodies 12 are provided. You may make it provide one running wheel in the center which does not carry out.

In this ridge traveling device 1, the outer end of the contact portion of the running wheel 11 and the inner end of the contact portion of the slope contacting body 12 are the shoulder portion of the ridge R (the edge portion of the boundary between the upper surface R1 and the slope surface R2). , and the inclination angle of the inclined surface 12a of the truncated cone-shaped slope grounding member 12 with respect to the rotation axis (horizontal axis) P is formed to match the inclination angle of the slope surface R2 of the ridge R. ing.

According to such a ridge traveling device 1, since the slope contact bodies 12 are provided on the outer sides of the left and right running wheels 11, the left and right slope contact bodies 12 sandwich the left and right sides of the ridge R. can do. Then, when the ridge traveling device 1 tries to deviate to the right, the slope contacting body 12 on the left side acts as a resistance to cause the ridge traveling device 1 to proceed straight along the ridge, causing the ridge traveling device 1 to deviate to the left. When it tries to do so, the slope grounding member 12 on the right side acts as a resistance to cause the ridge travel device 1 to move straight along the ridge. Thereby, the ridge travel device 1 can stably and automatically travel on the ridge R.

At this time, the running wheels 11 are in contact with the upper surface of the ridge R, and the slope ground contacting bodies 12 are in contact with the slope R2 of the ridge R. It has a wide contact patch with respect to the ridge R, which also enables stable running. A pair of slope grounding bodies 12 must be provided on the left and right sides. However, as shown in FIG. good. When it is provided only on one of the front and rear sides, it is preferably provided only on the front side in the traveling direction.

The running wheels 11 are rotationally driven by driving means provided in the body portion 10 . As for the driving of the running wheels 11, the left, right, front and rear running wheels 11 may be independently driven, or the left and right running wheels 11 may be integrally driven. Further, all four running wheels 11 may be driven (4-wheel drive), or only two front wheels or two rear wheels may be driven (front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive). On the other hand, the slope contacting member 12 provided on each running wheel 11 is rotationally driven integrally with or independently of the running wheel 11 .

The running wheels 11 or the slope contact bodies 12 can be driven to rotate independently on the left and right sides. By independently driving the left and right running wheels 11 or the slope grounding bodies 12 in this way, even if the left and right running wheels 11 or the slope grounding bodies 12 are in different ground contact states, the left and right independent rotational driving can be achieved. , the straightness of the ridge travel device 1 can be maintained.

2 to 4 show examples of drive systems for the running wheels 11 and the slope grounding member 12. FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the running wheels 11 and the slope grounding member 12 are driven by one motor 20. In the example shown in FIG. In this example, the rotating shaft of the motor 20 is a drive shaft 21 supported by a bearing 21A, and a wheel 22 common to the running wheels 11 and the slope grounding body 12 is fixed to the drive shaft 21 . According to this, the running wheel 11 and the slope contacting body 12 are integrally rotated by the motor 20 . In the illustrated example, the rotating shaft of the motor 20 and the driving shaft 21 are coaxial, but the driving force is transmitted from the rotating shaft of the motor 20 to the driving shaft 21 via a power transmission mechanism (gear train, etc.). can be When the running wheels 11 and the slope contacting member 12 are driven by the single motor 20 in this way, the power consumption and the weight of the device can be reduced because the motor 20 is one unit.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, the first wheel 22A is fixed to the drive shaft 21 that is rotationally driven by the motor 20 as in the example of FIG. A second wheel 22B is pivotally supported on the second wheel 22B. According to this, the running wheel 11 connected to the first wheel 22A is driven by the motor 20, and the slope contacting body 12 connected to the second wheel 22B is not driven by the motor 20, and the running wheel 11 is driven. independently driven to ground. According to this, since the running wheels 11 and the slope contacting bodies 12 are free, the impact such as unevenness of the slope can be absorbed, and the running wheels 11 are hardly subjected to a force that hinders the running.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, a first wheel 22A is fixed to a drive shaft 21 that is rotationally driven by a motor 20, and a second wheel 22B is attached to the first wheel 22A or the drive shaft 21 via a bearing 23. The supporting point is the same as the example shown in FIG. Further, in this example, the second wheel 22B is driven by a motor 20A fixed to the body portion 10 different from the motor 20. As shown in FIG. As a result, the running wheel 11 connected to the first wheel 22A and the slope contacting body 12 connected to the second wheel 22B are independently driven by different motors. According to this, the rotational speeds of the running wheels 11 and the slope grounding member 12 can be finely adjusted, so that it is possible to cope with shape changes such as partial collapse of the running surface and the slope surface.

In the examples shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, one traveling unit 2 is composed of the traveling wheels 11 and the slope contacting body 12. As shown in FIG. A pair of left and right traveling units 2 are supported by a main body 10 so that a pair of left and right slope contacting bodies 12 can be adjusted according to the width of the upper surface R1 of the ridge R. The interval adjustment at this time is a preliminary adjustment performed before the work for the ridge R whose upper surface R1 has a substantially constant width. Further, when the width of the upper surface R1 changes in one ridge R, the gap between the pair of left and right slope grounding members 12 is adjusted to follow the change in the width of the upper surface R1 during running.

5 to 7 show the gap adjusting mechanism of the traveling unit 2. FIG.

In the example shown in FIG. 5, a pair of left and right traveling units 2 are coaxially supported by a gap adjusting member 3 containing an elastic body such as a spring (tension coil spring) 3A. The gap adjusting member 3 slides a solid body 3C having one end attached to the motor frame 2A of the left and right traveling units 2 into a hollow member 3B having one end attached to the motor frame 2A of one of the left and right traveling units 2. It is freely inserted, and the spring 3A contained therein is a tension spring, and the spring is biased in the direction of shortening the length of the interval adjusting member 3. As shown in FIG. The pair of left and right traveling units 2 has a motor frame 2A supported by a slide frame 4, and is supported by a main body 10 (not shown in FIG. 5) via the slide frame 4. As shown in FIG.

According to this, as shown in FIG. 5(a), when traveling on the ridge R having a wide upper surface R1, the length of the interval adjusting member 3 is increased to correspond to the wide width W of the upper surface R1. As shown in FIG. 5(b), when traveling on a ridge R where the width W' of the upper surface R1 is narrow, the length of the interval adjusting member 3 is longer than the length of the spring 3A. It automatically shortens upon biasing to the spacing between the slope ground bodies 12 corresponding to the width W' of the narrow upper surface R1. The gap adjusting member 3 may be an elastic body such as a spring or rubber, or different poles of magnets may be provided at both ends of the gap adjusting member 3 to utilize the attracting force of the magnets.

According to such an example, the slope contacting bodies 12 of the traveling unit 2, which are provided as a pair on the left and right, are always spring-biased toward the center of the main body 10, and the width of the upper surface R1 of the traveling ridge R changes. In this case, the slope grounding body 12 moves following the change, and the ridge traveling device 1 can be driven in a state that the pair of slope grounding bodies 12 always sandwich the upper part of the ridge R. .

The example shown in FIG. 6 is an example in which the actuator 5 is used to adjust the distance between the pair of left and right traveling units 2 . In this example, the actuator 5 is driven to adjust the distance between the traveling units 2 in response to changes in the width of the upper surface R1 of the ridge R on which the vehicle travels. In the illustrated example, the spacing adjustment member 3 and the like described above are omitted, but the spacing adjustment member 3 may be additionally provided together with the actuator 5 .

A known actuator 5 can be used in this case, but in the illustrated example, adjustment frames 5B and 5C are screwed into ball screws 5A arranged along the left and right sides, and one end is supported by a bearing 5D. By rotating the other end of the ball screw 5A with the motor 5E, the adjustment frames 5B and 5C supporting the motor frames 2A of the pair of left and right traveling units 2 are brought closer to or separated from each other. At this time, the actuator 5 is driven to move the adjusting frames 5B and 5C closer to each other or away from each other so that the surface pressure of the slope grounding body 12 is detected by a sensor (not shown) and a constant surface pressure is always obtained. The surface pressure is measured by, for example, installing a load cell for load measurement on one or both of the adjustment frame 5B and the adjustment frame 5C of the actuator 5 and measuring the surface pressure of the slope grounding body 12 .

The interval adjustment between the left and right traveling units 2 (slope ground bodies 12) can be performed by various controls. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the sensor 6 is installed on the arm 4A of the slide frame 4, and the sensor 6 detects the left and right shoulder portions of the ridge R (the edge portion of the boundary between the upper surface R1 and the slope surface R2). Then, the actuator 7 (for example, rack and pinion system) provided on the slide frame 4 is driven so that the positional relationship between the detection position and the slope contacting body 12 is always constant. The sensor 6 at this time may be a laser sensor for detecting the distance between the upper surface R1 of the ridge R and the slope R2, an ultrasonic sensor, or left and right shoulder portions of the ridge R (the boundary between the upper surface R1 and the slope R2). An image sensor (camera) or the like that detects an image of an edge portion) can be used.

FIG. 8 shows a configuration example of the slope grounding body 12 . In the example shown in FIG. 8A, the slope contacting member 12 is provided with a plurality of ribs 12R on the outer peripheral edge of the truncated conical inclined surface 12a. In the illustrated example, a plurality of ribs 12R are provided extending in a direction crossing the circumferential direction. The rib 12R may extend in the direction of the generatrix of the cone as shown in the figure, or may extend in a direction inclined with respect to the direction of the generatrix. The example shown in FIG. 8(b) is an example in which a plurality of pillars 12S are provided at least at the outer peripheral edge of the inclined surface 12a of the slope grounding member 12, and the example shown in FIG. In this example, a plurality of conical projections 12T are provided at least on the outer peripheral edge of the inclined surface 12a of the surface grounding body 12. FIG. By providing the ribs 12R, the pillars 12S, the conical projections 12T, and other irregularities, it is possible to prevent the slope grounding body 12 from slipping. can be efficiently converted into thrust force.

FIG. 9 shows an example of use of the ridge traveling device 1. As shown in FIG. In this example, the ridge traveling device 1 is provided with a mowing unit 13 at the front or rear of the main unit 10 in the traveling direction (in the illustrated example, the mowing unit 13 is provided at one of the front and rear sides, but the mowing unit 13 is provided at both the front and rear sides). working unit 13 may be provided). According to this, it is possible to mow the grass smoothly and safely while automatically traveling stably on the ridge R. It should be noted that the ridge traveling device 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention can stably and safely perform various types of work, such as transportation work on the ridge, management work such as spraying from the ridge to the field, and the like, in addition to the mowing work. It can be done.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to these embodiments, and design modifications and the like are made within the scope of the present invention. is included in the present invention. In addition, each of the above-described embodiments can be combined by utilizing each other's techniques unless there is a particular contradiction or problem in the purpose, configuration, or the like.

1: ridge travel device, 2: travel unit, 2A: motor frame,
3: interval adjusting member, 3A: spring, 4: slide frame, 4A: arm,
5: actuator, 5A: ball screw,
5B, 5C: adjustment frame, 5D: bearing, 5E: motor,
7: actuator, 6: sensor,
10: main body, 11: running wheel,
12: slope grounding body, 12a: inclined surface,
12R: rib, 12S: column, 12T: conical projection,
13: mowing unit, 20, 20A: motor, 21: drive shaft, 21A: bearing,
22: wheel, 22A: first wheel, 22B: second wheel,
23: Bearing, R: Ridge, R1: Upper surface, R2: Slope, P: Rotating shaft, W: Upper surface width

Claims (10)

A ridge traveling device that travels on a ridge having a substantially trapezoidal cross section,
a main body that advances on the upper surface of the ridge;
At least a pair of left and right running wheels provided on the main body portion and grounded on the upper surface of the ridge;
A ridge traveling device comprising: a slope grounding body provided outside the pair of left and right running wheels, rotating coaxially with the running wheels, and having an inclined surface that contacts the slope of the ridge. . 2. The ridge traveling device according to claim 1, wherein said slope contacting member is rotationally driven integrally with or independently of said traveling wheel. 2. The ridge traveling device according to claim 1, wherein said slope contacting body is grounded and driven independently of said running wheels. The ridge travel device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the running wheels or the slope grounding bodies are driven to rotate independently of each other. 5. The ridge according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the slope grounding bodies provided in a pair on the left and right are supported by the main body so that the spacing can be adjusted according to the width of the upper surface of the ridge. running device. 6. The ridge travel device according to claim 5, wherein the adjustment of the spacing between said pair of left and right slope ground bodies is adjusted following a change in said upper surface width during travel. 7. The ridge traveling device according to claim 6, wherein the slope grounding bodies provided in a pair on the left and right sides are biased toward the center of the main body by an elastic body. 7. The ridge traveling device according to claim 6, wherein said interval adjustment is performed by driving an actuator. The ridge traveling device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein a plurality of ribs are provided on the outer peripheral edge of the truncated conical inclined surface. The ridge traveling device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the main body portion has mowing units on one or both of the front side and the rear side in the traveling direction.

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