JP2022158607A - Working vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

To make a moving work vehicle traveling in plant cultivation facility perform entry positioning to an adjacent working passage easily and efficiently.SOLUTION: In a working vehicle that travels on each working passage 9 between a large number of cultivation beds 5 and a moving passage 4 leading to each working passage 9 at an end part of the cultivation beds 5, a bearing ring 20b traveling on a pair of right/left rails 13 arranged on each working passage 9 and wheels 35 traveling on the moving passage 4 are provided for a traveling vehicle body 21, and the wheels 35 traveling on the moving passage 4 are provided switchable between a traveling state where the wheels contact the ground by an elevator mechanism 39 and a non-traveling state where the wheels are raised. Working passage entry position detection sensors 45 which detect the rails 13 are provided for a side opposing to the rails 13 of the traveling vehicle body 21, and the sensors stop the working vehicle body 21 when a working passage entry position is detected when traveling on the moving passage 4.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a work vehicle such as a transport vehicle that transports a storage bucket for storing harvested crops in a plant cultivation facility.

In a plant cultivation facility, there is a configuration of a traveling device that performs work travel in a work passage along a crop cultivation line and movement travel in a movement passage that leads to a work passage along another crop cultivation line (Patent Document 1).

JP 2017-163928 A

According to Patent Document 1, when the control device determines that the work vehicle has left the work passage, the traveling vehicle body is turned on the spot by rotating the left and right traveling wheels on the outside of the turn forward and by rotating the inside of the turn in reverse. Therefore, there is an advantage that the turning radius can be reduced.

However, since the traveling vehicle body turns, it is difficult to align the entry position in the next adjacent work passage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to easily and efficiently perform positioning for entry into adjacent work passages.

In order to solve such a problem, the invention described in claim 1 is a work vehicle that travels in each work passage 9 between a large number of cultivation beds 5 and in a movement passage 4 that communicates with each work passage 9 at the end of the cultivation bed 5. A track ring 20b running on a pair of left and right rails 13 arranged in each work passage 9 and wheels 35 running on the moving passage 4 are provided on the traveling vehicle body 21, and the wheels 35 running on the moving passage 4 are grounded by an elevating mechanism 39. It is provided so as to be switchable between a running state in which the vehicle is moving and a non-running state in which the vehicle is raised.

The invention according to claim 2 is based on the invention according to claim 1, in which a work passage entrance position detection sensor 45 for detecting the rail 13 is provided on the side of the traveling vehicle body 21 facing the rail 13, and when the movement passage 4 travels, The work vehicle body 21 is stopped when the work path entry position is detected.

According to a third aspect of the invention, in the first or second aspect of the invention, a forward detection sensor 47f and a reverse detection sensor 47r for detecting the member 46 to be detected are provided in front and rear of the traveling vehicle body 21 .

In the invention according to claim 4, in the invention according to claims 1 to 3, the front, rear, left, and right bearing rings 20b for traveling on the rail 13 and the traveling wheels 35 for traveling on the moving path 4 are arranged in front and rear at each of the four corners. They are positioned to face each other at a predetermined distance, and the battery 41 is arranged within the range of this predetermined distance.

According to the first aspect of the invention, when moving to the adjacent cultivation bed 5, the traveling vehicle body 21 can be easily aligned by reducing the change in the attitude of entering between the cultivation beds. Further, since the traveling vehicle body 21 does not turn, the space of the moving passage 4 can be made compact.

According to the inventions of claims 2 and 3, in addition to the effect of claim 1, the work path entry position detection sensor 45 can reliably detect the rail 13 . In particular, according to the third aspect of the invention, a predetermined distance can be set between the traveling vehicle body 21 and the cultivation bed 5 , and the traveling vehicle body 21 can be prevented from coming into contact with the cultivation bed 5 .

According to the invention of claim 4, in addition to the effects of claims 1 to 3, the running of the running wheels 35 for running the moving path 4 is stabilized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a schematic diagram of the plant cultivation equipment of the working vehicle concerning embodiment of this invention. (A) A side view of the harvesting vehicle, (B) A plan view of the harvesting vehicle. It is a side view which shows an example of the harvesting work in the same harvesting vehicle. It is explanatory drawing which shows the stacking of the bucket in the same harvest vehicle. It is a top view which shows the traveling means of the same work vehicle, and its periphery. FIG. 2 is a side view showing traveling means of the work vehicle and its surroundings; It is a control block diagram of the same working vehicle. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing traveling means and traveling vehicle body turning means of the work vehicle; FIG. 4 is a plan view showing traveling means and traveling vehicle body turning means of the work vehicle;

A greenhouse facility according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a cultivation facility. This cultivation facility includes a cultivation room 1, which is a greenhouse in which the indoor environment such as temperature and humidity is controlled by a heater, a humidifier, etc., and a cultivation room 1 adjacent to the cultivation room 1. and a shipping room 2 for In the center of the cultivation room 1, there is provided a main passage 4 through which workers, mobile work vehicles (work carts) 3, pest control vehicles, etc. can pass. is a passage. At lateral positions on both sides of the main passage 4, a cultivation space 6 for cultivating crops is formed in which a large number of rows of cultivation beds 5 serving as cultivation units are arranged. The cultivation bed 5 is a cultivation bed made of rock wool as a culture medium, and a nutrient solution is supplied to each cultivation bed 5 from a nutrient solution supply device 7 in the shipping chamber 2 .

In addition, at both ends of the main passage 4, entrances 8 to the cultivation chamber 1 having opening and closing doors are provided, and through one of the entrances 8, the adjacent shipping chamber 2 can be accessed. The other doorway 8 is configured to be accessible from the outside of the cultivation facility. Then, the mobile work vehicle 3 is moved from the main passage 4 to the sub-passage 9 between the cultivation beds 5, and various kinds of plants are cultivated while the mobile work vehicle 3 is moved along the cultivation beds 5 in the sub-passage 9. work can be done. The subpassage 9 serves as a passage formed in the front-rear direction between the left and right of each cultivation bed 5 . The mobile work vehicle 3 runs on left and right heating pipes for heating the entire greenhouse laid on the sub passage 9 as rails 13 for running.

In the shipping chamber 2, there are provided the above-described nutrient supply device 7 and a sorting device 10 for sorting harvested products (fruits) such as tomatoes by weight, size or grade. The sorting device 10 serves as a pretreatment device for treating cultivated crops before shipment. The sorting device 10 includes a sorting conveyor 11 for conveying and sorting harvested products, and harvested product storage units 12 for each class provided on both sides of the sorting conveyor 11. The harvested products are supplied from the harvested product storage units 12 to the harvested product storage units 12, and sorted into respective grades. The sorting conveyor 11 is bent in an L shape in plan view. In addition, each harvest storage unit 12 may be provided with a storage box for storing the harvest, and the harvest may be shipped for each storage box.

At the upper side of the cultivation bed 5, an attracting wire 15 is provided along the cultivation line, and the cultivated strain of the plant P to be cultivated is attracted by an attracting string 17 as an attracting member hanging down from the attracting wire 15 via an attracting hook 16. be. The attracting hook 16 is suspended from the attracting wire 15, and has a well-known structure in which the wound attracting string 17 is drawn out as appropriate and hangs down. After the plant has grown to a predetermined height (near the attracting hook 16), the attracting string 17 is pulled out from the attracting hook 16, and the attracting string 17 is sequentially pulled in the arrangement direction of the plurality of cultivated strains, that is, the cultivation bed 5. The height of the plant is lowered by shifting it in the longitudinal direction, and the plant is cultivated continuously. Therefore, for example, when tomato f is cultivated, tomato stem c extends from cultivation bed 5 along attracting string 17 (FIG. 3).

The mobile work vehicle 3 is a harvest work vehicle as shown in FIGS. A traveling vehicle body 21 supported so as to be able to travel by traveling wheels 20 on the front, rear, left, and right is provided with a harvesting arm 22, and harvested product storage buckets A, A, . . . It has holding lift mechanisms 25 and 26 for stacking and unstacking. The harvesting arm 22 and the upper and lower gripping lift mechanisms 25 and 26 are controlled by actuators such as control motors according to command signals output after arithmetic processing by a control device C which receives input signals from various sensors such as setting signals and imaging devices (not shown). operates to automatically perform fruit harvesting and fruit storage in the bucket A.

The buckets A are stacked in the lower accommodation space 24 of the upper and lower accommodation spaces 23 and 24, and the tomatoes f harvested by the harvesting arm 22 in this state are sequentially supplied to the uppermost bucket A (FIG. 4 ( stomach)). When the uppermost bucket A is full, the lower clamping lift mechanism 26 lifts the lowermost bucket A, that is, raises all the buckets A, A . Then, when the uppermost bucket A rises to the standby position of the upper holding lift mechanism 25, the upper holding lift mechanism 25 engages and raises the uppermost bucket A, thereby storing tomatoes. The uppermost bucket A waits in the upper storage space 23 ((c) in the figure).

Subsequently, the tomato f harvested by the harvesting arm 22 is supplied to the bucket A which is the uppermost position of the storage space 24 below with the empty bucket A until it is full. After that, the bucket A supported by the upper clamping lift mechanism 25 is once lowered to overlap the full bucket A once ((d) in the same figure), and the lower clamping lift mechanism 26 lifts all the buckets. A, A, . The buckets A that are sequentially filled in this manner are stacked and transferred to the upper accommodation space 23 . When the lowermost bucket A supported by the lower gripping lift mechanism 26 is filled with harvested tomatoes f ((f) in the figure), harvesting is completed. Buckets A supported by the upper clamping lift mechanism 25 are stacked on the lowest bucket A ((g) in the figure), and all the upper buckets A are lowered ((h) in the figure). The multistage bucket A storing the tomatoes f thus harvested is moved to the storage space 24 on the lower side. The bucket A waiting in the lower accommodation space 24 is moved to the outside of the traveling vehicle body 21 by appropriately opening the bottom or conveying by means of a conveyor.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, the support base 27 of the harvesting arm 22 is configured to be movable in the longitudinal direction of the traveling vehicle body 21 by means of guide rails 28 provided along the boundaries of the upper and lower housing spaces 23 and 24. . Therefore, if all the buckets A, A, . . . Since the number of harvested tomatoes f is not as large as that on the left, they can be stored in the uppermost bucket A, which still has storage space.

Next, the travel mechanism of the mobile work vehicle 3 and its peripheral configuration will be described. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a pair of front, rear, left, and right traveling wheels 20 that support a traveling vehicle body 21 are track rings composed of a large-diameter ring 20a and a small-diameter ring 20b. , working passage 9). The large-diameter wheels 20a are provided for access travel up to the rail 13 or backward travel from the rail 13. As shown in FIG. The front wheel shafts 30 of the pair of front left and right running wheels 20 are configured to be driven by a running drive motor 31, and the rear wheel shafts 32 of the pair of rear left and right running wheels 20 and the front wheel shafts 30 are interlocked with an endless body 33, The running wheels 20 are configured to be four-wheel driven.

Running wheels 35 for running in the main passage 4 (hereinafter referred to as the moving passage 4) in the cultivation chamber 1 are provided on the lower surface of the central portion of the traveling vehicle body 21 . The travel path travel wheels 35 are rubber wheels, and constitute left and right wheel shafts 36 and 37 whose rotational axes are orthogonal to the front wheel shaft 30 and the rear wheel shaft 32 of the work path travel wheels 20 in plan view. , are supported in pairs on these wheel shafts 36 and 37, respectively. The left wheel shaft 36 is driven by a travel drive motor 38 so that the main passage 4 (hereinafter referred to as the moving passage 4) in the cultivation chamber 1 can be traveled in a two-wheel drive mode.

The left and right wheel shafts 36 and 37, the travel path travel wheels 35, and the like are provided on the lower surface of the central portion of the travel vehicle body 21 by forming a pantograph-type elevating mechanism 39 so as to be able to ascend and descend. Forward rotation of the elevation drive motor 40 of the elevation mechanism 39 allows the travel path travel wheels 35 to descend, and reverse rotation of the elevation drive motor 40 allows the travel path travel wheels 35 to ascend. Then, the traveling state in which the lifting mechanism 39 is controlled so that the ground contact position of the moving path traveling wheels 35 is lower than the lower edge of the moving path traveling wheels 20 and the lifting mechanism 39 is controlled to be higher than the lower edges of the traveling wheels 20 is switched to a non-running state in which the

A plurality of batteries 41 for driving various power sources and motors are mounted on the traveling vehicle body 21. In the example shown in the figure, four batteries 41 are arranged symmetrically in the front, rear, left, and right directions on the lower surface of the traveling vehicle body 21. We are trying to improve. That is, the traveling wheels 20 for traveling on the front, rear, left, and right working passages 9 and the traveling wheels 35 for traveling on the moving passages 4 are positioned so as to face each other with a predetermined distance in the front-rear direction at each of the four corners. are placed.

Next, the entry position determination control for the work passage 9 in the mobile work vehicle 3 when traveling on the movement passage 4 will be described. Rails 13 are arranged in parallel in two rows, and end portions 13t formed in a substantially U shape for circulating hot water on the rails 13 are arranged in a plurality of rows. is inputted, and based on the detection of the work path entry position detection sensor 45, it is determined whether or not the entry position has been reached. A rail end portion 13t is provided at the starting end side of each work passage 9. As shown in FIG.

In the illustrated example, work passage entry position detection sensors 45L and 45R are provided at two locations on the front left and right sides of the traveling vehicle body 21, one on the forward direction Fa side of the movement passage 4 and the other on the rearward direction. With this configuration, as the traveling vehicle body 21 moves in the moving passage 4, the preceding work passage entry position detection sensor 45R sequentially detects the left rail 13L, the rail end portion 13t, and the right rail 13R, and detects the right rail 13R. In addition to being able to detect the entry position of the work passage 9 immediately after the control device C (See FIG. 7), the following work passage entrance position detection sensor 45L detects the rail 13L and the rail end 13t, so that the overshoot of the traveling vehicle body 21 can be detected. . That is, by setting the distance between the left and right work passage entrance position detection sensors 45L and 45R larger than the distance between the pair of rails 13, the following work passage entrance position detection sensor 45L detects the rail 13L and the rail end portion 13t. Then it can be determined that it has gone too far. In this case, the traveling drive motor 38 is reversed to move the traveling vehicle body 21 backward until the rail 13L is detected again, thereby reaching the normal entry position. The controller C controls the traveling vehicle body 21 to stop when determining that the traveling vehicle body 21 traveling on the moving path 4 has reached the entry position. At the same time, a reverse rotation command is issued to the elevation drive motor 40 to interlock the travel path running wheels 35 to move up, thereby putting the vehicle in a non-running state, and preparing for entry control into the work path 9 .

Subsequently, the controller C outputs a forward drive signal to the travel drive motor 31 to drive the travel wheels 20, which are track rings. Therefore, the traveling vehicle body 21 can move forward from the moving path 4 to the rail 13 of the working path 9 . The traveling vehicle body 21 is provided with rail detection sensors 49L and 49R at the rear portion of the left traveling wheel 20 of the front wheel axle 30 and the front portion of the right traveling wheel 20 of the rear wheel axle 32 . Therefore, when the traveling vehicle body 21 normally moves on the rails 13, the rails 13 can be detected and it is determined that the vehicle is traveling normally. Derailment, etc. is determined and suggested.

Further, a member to be detected 46 is arranged at the center of the rail end portion 13t in the left and right direction. More specifically, a rod 46c to be detected is erected on a pedestal 46a straddling the rail end 13t via an elastic member 46b. When 47f detects the detected rod 46c, it can be determined that the entrance of the work passage 9 has been reached. In particular, by constructing the forward detection sensor 47f as a distance detection sensor type, it is possible to determine whether or not the traveling vehicle body 21 is at an appropriate distance from the rod 46c to be detected. It can be determined whether there is In addition, when moving forward along the rail 13 of the work passage 9, the distance to the building wall 48 can be detected, and it can be used as a detection unit for detecting the presence or absence of abnormal approach to the building wall 48, and the like. The pedestal 46a of the detected member 46 can be fixed to and released from the rail end portion 13t by a fastening member 46d, and is provided along the rail end portion 13t so as to be positionally adjustable.

A reverse movement detection sensor 47r is provided behind the traveling vehicle body 21, and a member (not shown) to be detected is appropriately arranged to allow the traveling vehicle body 21 to move backward from the working passage 9 to return to the moving passage 4. The amount of backward movement can be made appropriate, and the movement passage 4 can be stopped at an appropriate position.

8 and 9 show an example of configuring the turning mechanism 50 of the traveling vehicle body 21A. The pair of left and right traveling wheels 51 is composed of a large-diameter wheel 51a supported by a wheel shaft 52 and a small-diameter bearing ring 51b coaxially supported. 4 (hereinafter referred to as moving path 4), and can travel along rail 13 of sub-path 9 (hereinafter referred to as work path 9) by bearing ring 51b. The front wheel shafts 52 f of the pair of left and right running wheels 51 on the front side are configured to be driven by the running drive motor 53 . Although not shown, the rear wheel shaft 52r of the pair of rear left and right running wheels 51 and the front wheel shaft 52f may be interlocked with an endless body (not shown) so that the running wheels 51 may be four-wheel driven. .

The traveling vehicle body 21A is configured to be able to change the direction of the traveling vehicle body 21A by 90 degrees between the direction along the moving path 4 and the direction along the rail 13 so as to enter the work path 9 by a turning mechanism 50 described later. When the traveling vehicle body 21 is along the moving path 4, it travels along the moving path 4 with the wheels 51a, and when it turns at an angle of 90 degrees, it can travel along the rail 13 with the track ring 51b.

By the way, regarding the turning mechanism 50, a large-diameter gear 55 is fixed to the central lower part of the traveling vehicle body 21A, and a small-diameter gear 56 is provided to mesh with it. A magic hand type multi-joint link mechanism 57 is formed on the lower surface of the large-diameter gear 55 . It is configured so that the interval can be adjusted to be large or small.

Therefore, when the traveling vehicle body 21A travels along the moving path 4 with the large-diameter wheels 51a and reaches the entry position of the work path 9, it is controlled to stop. When the hydraulic cylinder mechanism 58 is switched from the retracted posture to the extended posture, the disk 59 is grounded and further extended by supplying pressure oil to the hydraulic cylinder mechanism 58, so that the traveling vehicle body 21A can be floated (virtual line in FIG. 9). ).

The traveling vehicle body 21A is provided with a turning drive motor 60 for driving the small-diameter gear 56. When the motor 60 is driven, the large-diameter gear 55 is interlocked. When the motor 60 is controlled to be stopped at the position where the vehicle body 55 is rotated about the vertical center line P and rotated by approximately 90 degrees, the traveling vehicle body 21A is turned along the rail 13 of the work passage 9 . By shortening the hydraulic cylinder mechanism 58 at this position, the disk 59 is raised and retracted to take the retracted posture, and the traveling wheels 20 return to the grounded state. When the running vehicle body 21A is moved forward to reach the end of the rail 13, the bearing ring 51b can be placed on the rail 13 and run.

As described above, since the large-diameter gear 55 provided in the center of the working vehicle body 21A is rotated by the turning drive motor 60, the entire traveling vehicle body 21A is rotated about the vertical axis, so that the working vehicle body 21A can be turned stably.

4 Moving passage 5 Cultivation bed 9 Working passage 13 Rail 13t Rail end 20b Track ring 21 Working vehicle body 35 Wheel 39 Elevating mechanism 41 Battery 45 Working passage entrance position detection sensor 46 Member to be detected 47f Advance detection sensor 47r Reverse detection sensor

Claims (4)

A traveling vehicle body (21) in a working vehicle that travels in each work passage (9) between a large number of cultivation beds (5) and a movement passage (4) that communicates with each work passage (9) at the end of the cultivation bed (5). In each work passage (9) are provided a bearing ring (20b) that runs on a pair of left and right rails (13) and a wheel (35) that runs on the movement passage (4), and a wheel that runs on the movement passage (4) (35) is a work vehicle characterized in that it is provided so as to be switchable between a running state in which it touches the ground and a non-running state in which it rises by means of an elevating mechanism (39). A work passage entry position detection sensor (45) for detecting the rail (13) is provided on the side of the traveling vehicle body (21) facing the rail (13), and when the work passage entry position is detected while the movement passage (4) is traveling, the work is performed. The work vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle body (21) is configured to be stopped. 3. The work vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a forward detection sensor (47f) and a reverse detection sensor (47r) for detecting the detected member (46) at the front and rear of the near traveling vehicle body (21). The front, rear, left, and right bearing rings (20b) for traveling on the rail (13) and the traveling wheels (35) for traveling on the moving passage 4 are positioned to face each other with a predetermined distance in the front and rear at each of the four corners. The work vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a battery (41).

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