JP2023056578A - Snow remover - Google Patents

Abstract

To solve the problem of users intentionally disabling from the start the dead-man control function, which is a standard safety device for small walk-behind snow removers, because it interferes with work.SOLUTION: Contrary to a dead-man control, a dead-man switch continues to operate for a prescribed period of time or more while a snow remover is in operation, a warning alarm notifying that the dead-man control is disabled is sounded depending on the presence state of an operator at that time. Alternatively, a clutch is disengaged to shut off power to a driving device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 9

Description

The present invention is mainly used in small walk-behind snow blowers used by individuals, farmers, shops, offices, small and medium-sized businesses, etc., where accumulated snow is scraped and collected by an auger, discharged by a blower, and discharged by a shooter. The present invention relates to improvement of work safety of a small rotary snow blower that throws snow to a place intended by an operator.

Small walk-behind snow blowers are now widely used for individual small-lot use in snow country regions, apart from large snow blowers used on public roads and public facilities managed by the national and prefectural governments. Snow removal work using this snow blower used to be the job of adult men, but with the gradual decline in the birthrate and aging population, there is a shortage of workers, and even the elderly and women are now doing it. Now that various people have come to use it, various safety devices are provided to prevent accidents. Among them, the latest safety device is the deadman's clutch. When the operator leaves the snow blower while it is in operation (extremely dead), the power to the driving device is stopped to stop the snow blower from running out of control and prevent accidents. In addition, it was enacted as a safety standard in 2015. The present application is a new technology that further develops this safety device, prevents accidents, and enables anyone to safely remove snow.

JP 2004-36331 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-52298 JP 2020-84614

Safety standards for walk-behind snow throwers Japan Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Association Snow Thrower Safety Council Established on June 25, 2015 News Reiease Consumer Affairs Agency November 13, 2019

The dead man's clutch was devised from the danger of the operator leaving the control position, and has been put into practical use as a traveling clutch lever and a snow removal work clutch lever for small aircraft that do not require complicated and advanced operations for driving, and already ISO8437 and ANSI. -B71 is also standardized. On the other hand, even for medium- and large-sized aircraft, which require a more complicated control mechanism than the control mechanism for small aircraft, the technical prospects were established and the "safety standard for walking snow blowers" was established later than for small aircraft (Non-Patent Document 1). ). At present, the control mechanism is almost mature as a deadman (clutch) control by a deadman switch (Patent Document 1). Various methods other than switches have been tried (Patent Document 2), but they have not yet been put to practical use due to poor reliability of safety control.
However, this deadman control, which is supposed to be a safety device, had a problem from the beginning that made the management side of the manufacturing side think "no way". The user deliberately disables this safety device (deadman disablement). The most common cause of accidents is to tie the handle lever to the steering wheel with a string (Fig. 9) and keep the deadman's switch on at all times. However, there is no end to it, and it has become a social problem these days (Non-Patent Document 2).
As a manufacturer that has been dealing with snow blowers for many years, the present invention is a new method that solves the trade-off between safety and workability by further studying the deadman control that was completed once in order to overcome this situation. , and realized advanced 2nd-generation deadman control that prevents users from disabling the deadman, contributing to the improvement of snow thrower safety.

The means taken in the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems is to use an auger, which is a snow removal work unit equipped with a motor to remove and collect snow, a blower to discharge snow, and a shooter that determines the direction of snow throwing. A compact walk-behind rotary snow blower comprising a driving force clutch operator (e.g., handle switch or handle lever), a traveling speed adjustment operator (e.g., HST lever), and a snow removal unit on the control unit (or operation panel) It has a vertical/horizontal roll operator (e.g., snow plow attitude operator or auger lever) and a snow throwing position adjustment operator (e.g., shooter lever), and one or two of these operators. Alternatively, three switches (i.e., deadman switches) are provided and configured to operate in conjunction with the operation of the operating device, and during operation of the snow blower, these switches are the setting time for switching the operating device. Deadman control disengages the clutch and cuts off the power to the drive unit when it is turned off for a certain period of time (about 1 second). When it continues to do so, a warning alarm is issued to invalidate the dead man's control, or the clutch is disengaged to cut off the power to the driving device. (Example 1)

Furthermore, the intermittent operation pattern of the deadman's switch at regular time intervals (approximately 5 minute intervals) during operation of the snowplow is read by the control unit as the driver's driving operation pattern, and the driving operation pattern stored in advance in the control unit is taught. The driving operation pattern data of the driver is machine-learned to bring it closer to the driver's driving operation pattern, and as a result of the matching, the intermittent signal of the deadman's switch includes continuous bouncing and chattering. When a composite vibration signal is seen, when it is determined that the operating time of the deadman's switch has obviously exceeded the maximum operating time of the deadman's switch for an abnormally long time (approximately 5 times), the deadman's control is disabled. or disengage the clutch to cut off the power to the drive device, and as a result of collation, if no continuous contact complex vibration signal is seen in the intermittent signal of the deadman switch, it is clear that the deadman switch When it is determined that the operating time of the deadman switch has exceeded the longest operating time of the operator's deadman switch for an abnormally long time (approximately 3 times), a warning alarm is issued to invalidate the deadman control, or the clutch is disengaged and power to the drive device Also, when neither the intermittent signal of the deadman switch nor the contact complex vibration signal is detected from the start of operation, when the maximum operating time of the deadman switch in the driving operation pattern data stored in the control unit is exceeded, the deadman control is disabled. It is that AI control is performed so that a warning alarm is issued, or the clutch is disengaged and the power to the drive device is cut off. (Example 2)

Furthermore, three intermittent operation patterns of the three deadman switches at regular time intervals (approximately five minute intervals) while the snowplow is operating are independently read into the control unit as the driver's driving operation pattern, and stored in advance in the control unit. Each of the three driving operation pattern data is collated, and each driving operation pattern data is machine-learned to bring it as close as possible to the driver's driving operation pattern, and as a result of the collation, either one or two When a continuous contact complex vibration signal is seen in the intermittent signal of one or more deadman's switches, the operation time of the deadman's switch obviously exceeds the longest deadman's switch operation time of the operator for an abnormally long time (about 5 times) ), a warning alarm is issued to invalidate the deadman control, or the clutch is disengaged to cut off the power to the driving device. , When it is determined that the operating time of the deadman's switch has obviously exceeded the operator's maximum operating time of the deadman's switch for an abnormally long time (approximately three times longer), a warning alarm is issued to disable the deadman's control, or the clutch is disengaged to drive. In such a state that the power to the device is cut off and neither the intermittent signal of any one or two deadman switches nor the contact complex vibration signal is observed from the start of operation, the intermittent signal of another deadman switch is continuously contacted. When a composite vibration signal is seen, when it is determined that the operating time of the deadman's switch has obviously exceeded the maximum operating time of the deadman's switch for an abnormally long time (approximately 5 times longer), a warning alarm will be issued to disable the deadman's control. or disengage the clutch to cut off the power to the drive device, and in a state where neither one or two or more deadman switch intermittent signals nor contact complex vibration signals are detected from the start of operation, another deadman When the continuous contact complex vibration signal is not detected in the intermittent signal of the switch, when the maximum operating time of the deadman switch in the driving operation pattern data stored in the control unit is exceeded, a warning alarm is issued to invalidate the deadman control, or It is that AI control is performed so as to disengage the clutch and cut off the power to the drive device. (Example 3)

The present invention has the following effects by implementing the above means.

Detects that the user has attempted to invalidate the deadman, issues an alarm, prompts the operator to cancel the invalidation, and cuts off the power, so the snowplow will not run out of control even if the deadman is invalidated, and the deadman will be invalidated. It is possible to completely prevent accidents caused by

Since it is judged from the driver's driving operation pattern and presence detection, it is judged to disable the dead man, so power cutoff due to misjudgment is extremely small, and it is possible to reduce the possibility that the user will try to disable the dead man, which is safer. increases. (Second third embodiment)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a control side overall view showing an embodiment of a walk-behind rotary snow remover of the present invention; 1 is a front perspective view and a side view showing an embodiment of a walk-behind rotary snow remover of the present invention; FIG. It is a side perspective view showing a dead man's clutch mechanism. It is a plane conceptual diagram of a transmission mechanism which shows a dead man's clutch mechanism. It is a figure which shows the mounting state of a dead man's switch. 4 is a control block diagram of deadman control; FIG. 4 shows a control flowchart of improved deadman control. 4 shows a control flowchart of improved deadman control. It is an illustration which shows the state of dead man invalidation work.

It is understandable that users want to disable deadman safety control because of work efficiency and work convenience. At first, it was thought that the ON-OFF state of the switch should be detected simply by judging that the state in which the deadman switch is ON for a long period of time indicates that the deadman invalidation has been performed (Embodiment 1). However, considering the feelings of the users who conducted market research, we came to the conclusion that unless the trade-off relationship between safety control and workability was resolved, users would not accept it. In order to fulfill the role of preventing the deadman from being invalidated, it is necessary to recognize and understand the operator's operation state and determine the clear difference between it and the operation pattern of each user. If the dead man's invalidation is determined (AI control), the user's sense of discomfort is infinitely reduced, and the user's intention to invalidate by tying the lever is eliminated, and the best invalidation prevention can be achieved (Embodiment 2). , 3).

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the large-sized snow blower of the present application as viewed from the control side. FIG. 2 shows a perspective view (upper figure) and a left side view (lower figure) as seen from the snow removing section side. The snow blower normally scrapes and removes accumulated snow with the auger, which is the rotating blade of the snow removing unit 1, collects it in the center, and takes it in. The snow is discharged at the peripheral speed of the blower, and the shooter 2 throws the snow to the place intended by the operator. The shooter 2 operates a shooter lever 45 on the control panel 4 to control the horizontal direction of snow throwing and the distance of throwing snow. Similarly, the snow removal section 1 is controlled by the snow removal section auger lever 44 between the lift position and the left/right rolling position. Since it is necessary to travel on snow, a structure using crawlers 3 is common.

3 and 4 show a power drive mechanism (clutch mechanism). FIG. 3 is a perspective side view of the snow remover, and FIG. 4 is a conceptual plan view. The upper view of FIG. 3 shows the traveling drive mechanism. The EG output is received by one belt, and it is driven in the order of pulley→shaft→counter→belt→HST 31→travel transmission 32→crawler 3. The lower diagram of FIG. 3 shows the driving mechanism of the snow removing section. The EG output is received by three belts, and driven in the order of blower 12 → counter → auger 11 . A clutch is generally used to apply tension by pressing a tension pulley against the belt to turn the power on and off. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this was a change from the manual clutch with a stick lever up to that point, and that the entire industry was involved in the development of an electric motor for deadman control. Other than this, there are some that use an electromagnetic clutch, but they are extremely rare.
In FIG. 4, the running tension pulley 3TP powers the crawler 3, and the blower/auger tension pulley 12TP powers the blower 12 and the auger 11, thereby performing normal steering control and deadman control. Each tension pulley is operated by a motor-driven wire (not shown). A series of these controls are performed by a control unit 5 (FIG. 1) mounted inside the control panel 4 .

FIG. 5 shows the mounted state of the deadman's switch, and FIG. 1 shows the relationship with steering. As for the snow removing procedure, first, when the handle 41 and the handle lever 42 are gripped together, the dead man's handle switch DSW1 is turned ON, the signal is received by the control unit 5, the traveling clutch is engaged, and the auger switch OSW is ready to be turned on. . The switch is also the travel clutch switch. After pressing this switch and engaging the snow removal clutch to drive the snow removing unit 1, the HST lever 43 controls the running speed, the auger lever 44 controls the vertical and rolling position of the snow removing unit 1, and the shooter lever 45 controls the snow throwing position. In order to operate in parallel, a certain amount of proficiency is required. Of these, the deadman HST switch DSW2 is incorporated in the HST lever 43, and the deadman auger switch DSW3 is incorporated in the auger lever 44, respectively. Therefore, the switch is turned ON during operation.

These switches, like the deadman's handlebar switch DSW1, also serve as running clutch switches. Since the snow removal load must be controlled at all times during snow removal work, the HST lever 43 for adjusting the running speed, the up and down position of the snow removal unit 1, and the auger lever 44 for adjusting the rolling posture are frequently grasped. Beginners, the elderly, and women often hold the steering wheel to stabilize the steering posture. There are also

When any one of the above three deadman switches is in the ON state, the operating snow blower assumes that the operator is present and is operating, and continues to operate. Deadman control is a safety device that cuts off the power to the driving and snow-removing parts when the robot has left its stationed position (overturning, loss of consciousness, etc.), and now this three-switch configuration is standard. It's becoming However, in consideration of the interval time between holding the lever in maneuvering operation, there is usually a slight delay time (about 1 second) instead of "switch off immediately power cutoff". At the beginning of development, there were some that incorporated a deadman's switch into the shooter lever 45, but compared to the other two levers, the operation frequency is extremely low, so it is rarely seen now. Other than the method of incorporating a switch into the operating lever, various methods of detecting the presence of the operator have been attempted, but none have been put to practical use.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of deadman control. The upper figure shows the current one, and the lower figure shows the improved one. Currently, the deadman switches DSW1 to DSW3 have an OR circuit input configuration. The snowplow safety standard was established in both name and reality with the power shutoff method by disengaging the clutch. . This was a total shock to the industry as it was totally unexpected. It was very natural to understand, and since it was a simple switch method, disabling it was easy. Then, when snowplow accidents in snowy regions became a social problem (Non-Patent Document 2), the applicant decided to develop a countermeasure to prevent the invalidation of the dead man.

The first thing I came up with was the reverse of the deadman control. If the deadman switch DSW1-3 turns off while the snowplow is operating, the clutch is disengaged. (Fig. 9), the lever grip is considered to be disabled by putting a cap on it, etc., and an alarm or voice guidance is issued to disengage the clutch. The abnormally long time was determined to be about 5 minutes as a result of investigating the operation patterns of a wide range of users, from beginners to experienced operators. This can be done by only changing the control software while keeping the original deadman control mechanism and control circuit (upper diagram in FIG. 6) as they are. It was a simple idea, but it seemed to be a reliable method. However, as a result of monitor observation during one season, it was found that the more experienced the operator, the less time the deadman switches DSW1 to DSW3 were interrupted when changing hands. Simple speculative control would end up in a cat-and-mouse game. Originally, it is a control that disengages the clutch and cuts off the power against the operator's will, so even though it is a safety device, it is a function that impairs usability. Recognizing that there is always a trade-off relationship between this safety device and workability, we reconsidered the method.

Users tried to disable the dead man by using the stick clutch lever method, which had been used for half a century in agricultural and construction machinery until then. On the other hand, in the deadman system, the clutch switch (that is, the deadman switch) must be pressed while operating the lever, so it was certainly troublesome for those who were used to the previous model. In addition to this, what made the feeling of inconvenience even greater was that the deadman safety control works more erroneously than when the operator is actually away from the machine in a dangerous situation, when the time limit for switching the controller is exceeded. because there were many Regarding the previous item, it will take time for safety devices to be recognized by people of the old generation, and the latter item must be eliminated.

In order to stop the user from thinking that the dead man is a nuisance and tries to disable it, it is necessary to clearly recognize the user's driving habits and driving operation patterns, and make a clear difference, namely, the abnormally long dead man switch DSW1-3. It is necessary to determine the ON state of , and perform control to prevent invalidation. In order to reach this point and realize it, the applicant tried to develop it ahead of the industry three years ago. I made it
When the ONOFF signals of the deadman switches DSW1-DSW3 (that is, the intermittent signals caused by changing the grip of the control lever) were monitored widely from beginners to experts, it was found that there were clearly differences depending on the operator. A new idea was proposed to recognize the driving operation pattern by changing the grip of the control lever and judge deadman invalidation tricks. The detection parameter is a simple ONOFF switch, which makes it easier to identify the driver's driving operation pattern than the previous back auto control.

The operator's proficiency level is classified into beginner, expert, elderly and female, and the deadman switch ON/OFF signal pattern for about 5 minutes during snow removal work is recorded as a driving operation pattern and sent to the control unit 5 as teacher data. It is stored in memory, and when the user starts removing snow, it is compared with the driving operation pattern data of the unit. When the snow removal work starts, the ONOFF signal of the switch is output, so that it is first determined that a person is operating without error (detection of the presence of the operator), and then the operation pattern matching is started. When the verification starts, the user's skill level is determined first, and machine learning of the classified driving operation patterns is started immediately. This was repeated to make the user's driving operation pattern as close as possible, and during the repetition of matching and machine learning, the operating time of the deadman's switch exceeded the maximum operating time of the deadman's switch for an abnormally long time (approximately 5 times), it is determined that the user has performed deadman invalidation work in the middle of the work, a warning alarm is issued, and the clutch is disengaged in the same way as the original deadman control, and the power to the drive device is blocked.
This effectively prevents the user's deadman disabling trick with little malfunction. As in the first embodiment, this method can be performed by only changing the control software while maintaining the original deadman control mechanism and control circuit (upper diagram in FIG. 6).

During the development of user's driving operation pattern recognition by the ONOFF signals of the deadman switches DSW1-DSW3, I happened to discover something that was not initially assumed. While observing the ONOFF signal waveform, I noticed that the rising and falling signal lines were strangely thick. This is also because the observation time axis was usually measured in seconds since the signal was originally generated by a person holding the lever. I thought this was switch chattering, but I stretched the time axis and found that it was normal chattering (strictly speaking, bouncing) and completely different chattering. I was able to quickly find out that it was caused by the operator's lever operation, but I never thought about it during development. While operating the snowplow, the operator presses the deadman's switch while grasping the lever grip from above, and applies force to move the lever forward, backward, left and right. In particular, the HST lever 43 and the auger lever 44 are operated frequently. In addition, the hand holding the lever grip receives the reaction of engine vibration, driving vibration, snow removal load vibration, etc., and constantly pulsates on the grip. This appears as an unusual chattering signal. Rather than chattering, it may be better to call it a contact complex vibration signal including chattering, bouncing, etc. due to imperfect switch operation of a pulsating hand.

When this strange chattering signal, that is, the contact complex vibration signal due to the pulsation of the lever grip when the operator operates the lever, it is undoubtedly proof that a person is operating the snow blower. In addition to the initial aim of detecting the presence of the driver by recognizing the driving operation pattern of the user based on the ONOFF signal pattern of the deadman switches DSW1 to DSW3, we decided to add this to the detection of the presence of the driver in duplicate. As a result of observing the contact complex vibration signal during each snow removal operation for each operator, beginner, expert, elderly and female, when it persists for 100ms or more, it is definitely operated by a person. I also learned that it is acceptable to judge that I am (resident).

Since the presence of the operator can be almost certainly detected, the control is made more flexible, and the control is divided into two cases depending on whether the contact complex vibration signal is output and when it is not output. When the snow removal work starts, the ONOFF signal of the switch is output, so it is determined that a person is operating, and machine learning and collation of the driving operation pattern are started. In the meantime, when a compound contact vibration signal is seen in the ONOFF signal of the switch and it continues (approximately 100 ms or more), it is determined that a person has been operating until that time without fail, and then the deadman switch If the operating time of the user's deadman switch exceeds the maximum operating time of the user's deadman switch for an abnormally long time (about 5 times), it will be considered that deadman invalidation has been performed from the middle of the work, and a warning alarm will be issued, following the original deadman control. , the clutch is disengaged to cut off the power to the driving device. Furthermore, in consideration of the case where the maximum operation time of the switch happens to be a unique operation of the operator at that time (long-distance cruise snow removal, etc.), the warning alarm is issued for a relatively long time. Once the operator notices it, the control is released by releasing the lever grip and squeezing it again.

In this way, by double detecting the presence of the driver and taking into consideration the case of a peculiar operation that greatly deviates from the driver's driving operation pattern, control to prevent deadman invalidation manipulation (that is, ultimately power cutoff) is possible. It was possible to make it as few malfunctions as possible. This is the case for normal snow removal operations.

On the other hand, if the composite contact vibration signal disappears in the middle of the duration and the switch remains ON, it is assumed that the operator is gone for some reason and the snow blower is running out of control with the dead man disabled. When the maximum operating time is exceeded (approximately three times) shorter than the above case, a warning alarm is issued and the power is cut off immediately.

The above is the case of good intentions of the driver, but in extreme cases, if the driver arbitrarily disables the snow removal work from the beginning and starts the snow removal work, the presence detection and the machine learning of the driving operation pattern will not be possible. I can't even match. In that case, it is assumed that the switch operation time has been turned off since the start of work, and the switch operation time measurement is started immediately, and the maximum operation time of the teaching data (in this case, the maximum operation time of the expert classification) is exceeded. , a shorter than usual warning alarm is issued, and the clutch is disengaged to cut off the power to the drive unit as per the original deadman control.

However, in the test after completion, although we have been developing the control software with the original deadman control mechanism and control circuit as they are, even though the deadman switch ON/OFF pattern is detected by the 3-switch parallel connection circuit, the driving operation is not possible. It was considered to be quite unreasonable to say that it corresponds to the pattern. Therefore, further improvements were made to detect the three switches independently, that is, to detect the three lever operation patterns independently (lower figure in FIG. 6). I had already thought about this in the concept stage when I was keenly aware of the need for AI control, but I have prioritized not changing the design as much as possible. By doing so, the user's driving operation pattern can be recognized more faithfully, and the prevention control of the deadman invalidation trick can be made more reliable.

The contents of the control are the same as those of the second embodiment, but the number of control patterns is greater than that of the second embodiment because all of the conditions of the operation of the snowplow and the operator can be identified. The control patterns are [1] for normal operation, [2] for normal operation when the driver is absent, [3] for continued driving with dead man invalidation, and [4] midway dead man invalidation. [5] If the dead man is disabled from the beginning of the operation and the operation is started, [6] Immediately after the dead man is disabled from the beginning of the operation and the driver is absent There are roughly six ways to do so when you are absent. In contrast to Example 3, Example 2 cannot distinguish between [3] and [4] and between [5] and [6]. The advantage of independent deadman switch detection is that, unlike parallel detection, even after one of them has been crafted to disable the deadman, it is possible to determine whether a person is operating (or is stationed) with another switch signal ( namely ONOFF pattern and composite contact vibration signal).

Basically, the policy of invalidation prevention control was to clearly distinguish between the presence and absence of a person (pilot). If there are people, give priority to calling attention and do not cut off the power unnecessarily. If it is determined that the snowplow is not there, cut off the power as soon as possible to stop the snowplow from running out of control. In the third embodiment, this fine control can be ideally realized. In the case of normal driving, even if the maximum operating time of the switch is exceeded by matching the driving operation pattern, the warning alarm is relatively low, considering the case that the operator happened to perform a unique operation (long-distance cruise snow removal, etc.) at that time. I'm trying to emit it for a long time (about 10 seconds). Once the operator notices this, he can release the lever grip (deadman's switch) and then grip it again to release the control and continue the snow removal operation. This is also done in the second embodiment, but if another switch is disabled (continuously ON state) at that time, this usability-oriented control cannot be performed.

When the switch OFF time during normal operation exceeds a predetermined time (approximately 1 second), the power is cut off immediately, which is the original deadman control. If the dead man is invalidated during normal operation and operation is continued, one of the three switches will remain ON and will be subject to invalidation prevention control, but another switch can detect presence, so the operation will not be possible. Depending on the pattern, it is also possible to persistently issue a warning and prompt the cancellation of the invalidation work. If the warning is ignored, the power will naturally be cut off. This is the big difference from the second embodiment. On the other hand, if another switch fails to detect the presence of the snowplow, it means that the snowplow is running out of control due to the absence of the operator, and the power is immediately cut off.

Similarly, even if the operator arbitrarily disables the work from the beginning and starts snow removal work, if the presence can be detected with another switch, an alarm will be issued first to encourage the cancellation of the disablement work, and then the power Cut off. If the presence detection is not possible, the power is cut off as soon as possible.

The above is the dead man invalidation manipulation prevention control of the present invention. Initially, it started with the simple idea of measuring the abnormally long operating time of the dead man's switch. It has made a leap to AI control called recognition. Based on the awareness that safety devices and workability are always in a trade-off relationship, as a result of investigating the control pattern from all angles in order to minimize malfunctions, new users will feel no discomfort at all, and even before dead man It has become a safety device that can be recognized in a relatively short time even by older generation users, and it is a safe device that anyone can feel comfortable with.
Although the first embodiment is simple, it will be adopted for the time being in a small machine that is considered to have little effect even if it malfunctions. Since the second embodiment only needs to change the control program of the control unit 5, it is adopted especially for models that are in a hurry to switch during the transition period to the complete transition to the third embodiment for medium and large machines.
As the applicant of this application, who has been working on snow blowers from early on in order to contribute to the region in heavy snowfall areas, I was heartbroken to hear the news of snow blower accidents every winter, despite the recent installation of safety devices. It is my hope that the introduction of the present invention into the market will eliminate snowplow accidents.

It can be used for all walk-behind work machines equipped with switch-type deadman safety control, such as agricultural machines and construction machines.

1 snow remover 2 shooter 3 crawler 4 operation panel 5 control unit 11 auger 12 blower 31 HST
32 Travel mission 41 Handle 42 Handle lever 43 HST lever (travel speed change operation lever)
44 Auger lever (snow plow position adjustment lever)
45 Shooter lever (snow throwing position adjustment lever)
46 side clutch lever (travel left/right turning adjustment lever)
DSW1 Deadman handle switch (also running clutch switch)
DSW2 Deadman HST switch (also running clutch switch)
DSW3 Deadman August switch (also running clutch switch)
OSW Snow removal clutch switch (auger switch)
3TP Travel tension pulley 12TP Blower/Auger tension pulley

Claims (3)

A compact walk-behind rotary snow thrower that is equipped with a motor and consists of an auger that scrapes and collects snow, a blower that discharges snow, and a shooter that determines the direction of snow throwing.
Driving power clutch operator (e.g., handle switch or handle lever), traveling speed control operator (e.g., HST lever), snow removing part up/down left/right roll operator (e.g., snow removing part attitude control) on control unit (or operation panel) or auger lever), a snow throwing position adjustment operation device (e.g., shooter lever), and a switch to any one, two, or three of the operation devices (that is, a deadman switch) ) is provided so that the switch operates in conjunction with the operation of the operating device, and the clutch is disengaged when the switch is turned off for a set time (approximately 1 second) or longer while the snowplow is operating. In the deadman control that cuts off the power to the driving device, conversely, if the switch continues to operate for more than a certain period of time in units of minutes while the snowplow is operating, a warning alarm is issued to invalidate the deadman control, or the clutch is released. An improved control method for deadman control, which cuts off the power to the driving device. In a deadman-controlled snow blower configured to connect the deadman switches in parallel,
The pattern of intermittent operation of the deadman's switch at regular time intervals during the operation of the snowplow is read by the control unit as a driver's driving operation pattern and residence discrimination, and compared with the driving operation pattern data stored in the control unit in advance, and The driver's driving operation pattern data is machine-learned to bring it as close as possible to the driver's driving operation pattern, and as a result of collation, the operation time of the deadman's switch is clearly abnormal. When it is determined that the deadman control has been exceeded for a long time, a warning alarm is issued to invalidate the deadman control, or the clutch is disengaged to cut off the power to the drive device. The vibration signal is read into the control unit as another way of judging whether the operator is present, and AI control is used to flexibly set the control pattern such as the type of warning alarm at the start of dead man invalidation prevention control, the length of the alarm, and the timing of power cutoff. The improved control method of deadman control according to claim 1, wherein In a snow blower configured to read the deadman switch independently to the control unit,
The intermittent operation pattern of each deadman's switch at regular time intervals during operation of the snow blower is independently read by the control unit as the driving operation pattern of the operator, and compared with each driving operation pattern data stored in the control unit in advance. Further, machine learning is performed on each of the driving operation pattern data to bring the driving operation pattern as close as possible to the driver's driving operation pattern. When it is determined that the deadman control has been exceeded for an abnormally long time, a warning alarm is issued to invalidate the deadman control, or the clutch is disengaged to cut off the power to the drive device. The contact complex vibration signal is read by the control unit as another operator presence judgment, and the control pattern such as the type of warning alarm at the start of the deadman invalidation prevention control, the alarm length, and the power cutoff timing can be flexibly set. 2. The improved deadman control method according to claim 1, wherein AI control is performed.

Images