JP2022164511A - Spreader and unmanned flight body including spreader - Google Patents

Abstract

To uniformly spread a spreading target in a traveling direction of an unmanned flight body.SOLUTION: A spreader includes: an accommodation unit that accommodates a granular spreading target; and a fan that discharges the spreading target supplied from the accommodation unit in a predetermined traveling direction. The fan includes: a rotation body that rotates around a rotation axis; and a first fin curved with a first curvature radius, a second fin curved with a second curvature radius smaller than the first curvature radius, and a third fin having a substantially straight shape, the fins being formed across the rotation axis of the rotation body and an outer edge. The first to third fins push the spreading target supplied from the accommodation unit to the rotation body, in the traveling direction.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a spreader and an unmanned aerial vehicle including the spreader, and more particularly to a spreader and an unmanned aerial vehicle for spreading granules, fertilizers, beans, and the like.

For example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2021-49875) discloses an unmanned aerial vehicle that includes a delivery unit configured from a disk-shaped rotating plate and plate-shaped blades arranged on the rotating plate. .

In Patent Literature 1, when fertilizer is introduced onto the rotating plate, the rotation of the rotating plate causes the fertilizer to come into contact with the blades. As the rotating plate rotates further, the manure is directed outward by centrifugal force, but the outward movement is restricted by the arcuate portion of the peripheral wall. When the rotating plate rotates further and the blades reach the linear portion of the peripheral wall, there is no longer any structure to block the centrifugal force applied to the fertilizer, so the fertilizer is ejected in the direction of the centrifugal force.

JP 2021-49875 A

However, since the blades disclosed in Patent Document 1 all extend linearly, the spray amount of the sprayed target is biased to the right (or left) in the traveling direction, and the sprayed target is evenly sprayed in the traveling direction of the unmanned aerial vehicle. I can't.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a spreader capable of evenly spraying an object to be sprayed in the traveling direction of the unmanned flying object, and an unmanned flying object having the same.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention
a storage unit that stores a granular spray target;
a fan that discharges the sprayed object supplied from the storage unit in a predetermined traveling direction;
A spreader comprising
the fan
a rotating body that rotates around its axis of rotation;
A first fin curved with a first radius of curvature and a second fin curved with a second radius of curvature smaller than the first radius of curvature, respectively formed between the rotation axis and the outer edge of the rotor. a fin and a generally straight third fin,
the first to third fins pushing out the object to be sprayed, which has been supplied onto the rotating body from the storage unit, in the advancing direction;
To provide a spreader characterized by:

In the spreader of the present invention, it is preferable that the first radius of curvature is 180-220 mm.

Moreover, in the spreader of the present invention, it is preferable that the second radius of curvature is 60 to 100 mm.

The present invention also provides an unmanned aerial vehicle comprising any of the applicators described above.

The sprayer and the unmanned flying object of the present invention can evenly spray the object to be sprayed in the traveling direction of the unmanned flying object.

1 is a diagram showing an outline of an unmanned air vehicle 1 according to this embodiment; FIG. 3A and 3B are a perspective view, a top view, a left side view, a front view and a bottom view of the fan 20. FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the fan 20 for explaining the operation of the fan 20; FIG.

Hereinafter, a spreader and an unmanned flying object including the same according to representative embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to what is illustrated. Also, since the drawings are for conceptually explaining the present invention, ratios and numbers may be exaggerated or simplified as necessary for easy understanding. In the following description, the same or corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description may be omitted.

For convenience of explanation, the XYZ axes are defined as follows. That is, the Z-axis is defined vertically upward, the X-axis is defined as the traveling direction of the unmanned air vehicle 1 (moving horizontally), and the Y-axis is defined as a direction orthogonal to the X-axis and the Z-axis. Therefore, the X-axis direction may be referred to as forward and/or backward, and the Y-axis direction may be referred to as left-right direction. It goes without saying that it can also advance (fly).

As shown in FIG. 1 , the unmanned air vehicle 1 includes a main body 3 and a spreader 5 attached to the main body 3 . In this embodiment, the unmanned flying object 1 is assumed to be a drone, especially an agricultural drone, but the present invention is not limited to this.

The applicator 5 is a device for ejecting a granular application target (or application material) 51 (see FIG. 3) such as fertilizer, seeds, beans, and agricultural chemicals. It should be noted that the term “granular” as used herein is a concept including granules, powder, and the like, and the object to be sprayed 51 may contain moisture. The spreader 5 has a storage section 10 and a fan 20 . Below, the components of the spreader 5 will be described in detail.

The storage unit 10 is a container that stores the target to be sprayed 51 and supplies the target to be sprayed 51 to the fan 20 . The storage section 10 may have various shapes and capacities as long as the effects of the present invention are not impaired.

The fan 20 is a device that releases the object to be sprayed 51 supplied from the storage unit 10 to the outside, and particularly includes a rotating body 21 and a first fin 24, a second fin 25 and a third fin 26 (FIG. 2(D)). , (E)).

The rotating body 21 is a disk-shaped member that rotates around a rotating shaft 22 by a driving means (not shown) such as an electric motor. The rotating body 21 receives the object to be sprayed 51 from the storage section 10 via a supply path 41 having a supply amount adjusting mechanism (not shown). Note that the rotation speed of the rotating body 21 may be fixed at a set value, or may be variable according to a user's operation or the like.

A first fin 24 , a second fin 25 and a third fin 26 are provided on the rotor 21 . The first fin 24, the second fin 25, and the third fin 26 may be attached to the rotating body 21 as separate members from the rotating body 21, or may be formed integrally with the rotating body 21 (integrally molded). may have been The first fin 24, the second fin 25, and the third fin 26 are members for pushing the scattering target 51 on the rotor 21 forward in the X-axis direction (more specifically, in the direction of the white arrow in FIG. 3). is.

The first fins 24 , the second fins 25 and the third fins 26 are arranged in a radial and substantially even positional relationship between the rotating shaft 22 and the outer edge 23 of the rotating body 21 . In this embodiment, the first fin 24, the second fin 25, and the third fin 26 are connected from the rotating shaft 22 to the outer edge 23, but they may be partially discontinued or have different heights.

As indicated by the white arrow in FIG. 3, the first fin 24 serves to scatter the scattering target 51 mainly in a direction R1 substantially along the traveling direction of the unmanned air vehicle 1 (see FIG. 3). Therefore, the first fin 24 is curved with a predetermined (first) radius of curvature. As an example, the radius of curvature of the first fins 24 may be 180-220 mm, preferably 195-200 mm.

The second fin 25 plays a role of scattering the scattering target 51 mainly to the right side R2 in the traveling direction of the unmanned air vehicle 1 (see FIG. 3). Therefore, the second fin 25 is curved with a second radius of curvature that is smaller than the first radius of curvature. As an example, the radius of curvature of the second fins 25 may be 60-100 mm, preferably 75-80 mm.

The third fin 26 serves to scatter the sprayed target 51 mainly to the left R3 in the traveling direction of the unmanned air vehicle 1 (see FIG. 3). Therefore, the third fin 26 extends substantially linearly. However, the third fin 26 may be curved slightly more gently than the first fin 24, and in the present invention, such a slightly curved shape may also be said to be linear.

A guide 31 is provided on the rear side of the rotor 21 (see, for example, FIGS. 2 ((C) and (E)). The guide 31 includes a first fin 24, a second fin 25 and a third fin. 26 regulates the spraying direction of the spraying target 51 within a predetermined angle range from the direction of travel.The predetermined angle range here is, for example, 30° to 40°. As a result, it will be released in the range of 60° to 80°.

Next, the operation of the unmanned air vehicle 1, especially the operation of the spreader 5, will be described.
The unmanned flying object 1 can spray the spraying target 51 from the sprayer 5 regardless of whether the unmanned air vehicle 1 is traveling forward, backward, rightward, or leftward during flight. The spraying amount per unit time of the spraying target 51 is appropriately adjusted in the sprayer 5 (supply path 41).

In the spreader 5 , when the object to be spread 51 is supplied from the storage unit 10 to the rotating body 21 through the supply path 41 , the object to be spread 51 moves toward the outer edge 23 of the rotating body 21 due to the centrifugal force of the rotating body 21 . do. Also, the object to be sprayed 51 comes into contact with the rotating first fin 24 , second fin 25 and third fin 26 and is pushed out in the circumferential direction of the rotating body 21 . However, the scattering target 51 collides with the guide 31 and is restricted from being discharged rearward (rear side in the traveling direction) of the rotating body 21 . In this manner, the spray target 51 is released from the front of the unmanned air vehicle 1 .

At this time, since the linear third fins 26 release the sprayed targets 51 relatively quickly, the distribution of the sprayed targets 51 by the third fins 26 is biased from the left to the center (that is, the range of R3) in the traveling direction.

Conversely, since the second fin 25 with a sharp curvature releases the target to be sprayed 51 relatively slowly, the distribution of the target to be sprayed 51 by the second fin 25 is from the center to the right (that is, the range of R2) in the traveling direction. biased.

Also, the scattering tendency of the first fin 24 having a gentle curvature is approximately in the middle of the scattering distribution of the second fin 25 and the third fin 26, and gathers near the center in the traveling direction (that is, the range of R1).

Therefore, when the respective scattering tendencies of the first fin 24, the second fin 25 and the third fin 26 are summed up, the object to be scattered 51 is dispersed to the left, right and center in a well-balanced manner. In this regard, if all the fins are straight or curved with the same curvature, the distribution of the spray will be biased, and it will not be possible to spray the target in a well-balanced manner in the predetermined range in front of the traveling direction and on the left and right. .

Although representative embodiments of the present invention have been described above with reference to the drawings, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and does not depart from the spirit and teachings of the claims. Other refinements and variations exist within the scope. All such improvements and modifications are included in the technical scope of the present invention.

1 unmanned flying object 3 main body 5 spreader 10 storage unit 20 fan 21 rotor 24 first fin 25 second fin 26 third fin 51 spray target

Claims (4)

a storage unit that stores a granular spray target;
a fan that discharges the sprayed object supplied from the storage unit in a predetermined traveling direction;
A spreader comprising
the fan
a rotating body that rotates around its axis of rotation;
A first fin curved with a first radius of curvature and a second fin curved with a second radius of curvature smaller than the first radius of curvature, respectively formed between the rotation axis and the outer edge of the rotor. a fin and a generally straight third fin,
the first to third fins pushing out the object to be sprayed, which has been supplied onto the rotating body from the storage unit, in the advancing direction;
A spreader characterized by: the first radius of curvature is 180 to 220 mm;
2. The spreader according to claim 1, characterized in that: the second radius of curvature is 60 to 100 mm;
3. The spreader according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: An unmanned flying object comprising the spreader according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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