JP2616788B2 - Automatic steering device for transplanter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention uses a row of planted seedlings as a guide,
The present invention relates to an automatic steering device of a transplanter that automatically steers a transplanter.

(Prior art)

The rice transplanter, which is a transplanter, includes a traveling body and a planting section connected to the rear of the body. The seedlings mounted on the planting section are mounted on the planting section while the traveling body is running. By the operation of the planting claws, plants are planted in the field at predetermined intervals.

By the way, if the planting interval between seedlings is too narrow,
There is a risk of inferior growth of the seedlings. Conversely, if the planting interval is excessively wide, the yield per unit area decreases, so planting of the seedlings is desirably performed at an appropriate planting interval. . In the rice transplanter, the planting claw is operated in synchronization with the traveling speed of the traveling machine, and the planting interval in the traveling direction of the traveling machine is automatically adjusted to the appropriate value regardless of the traveling speed. However, in order to keep the planting interval in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the traveling body (hereinafter referred to as the "strain interval") at the appropriate value, the traveling body is moved along the rows of the already planted seedlings. It is necessary to make planting while steering. However, during planting work using a rice transplanter, there are various monitoring items such as the remaining amount of seedlings mounted on the planting section, the operating state of the planting section, and the operating state of the engine. Performing the steering reliably at the same time as the monitoring has a disadvantage that a great deal of labor is imposed on the operator.

Therefore, to reduce the labor burden on the workers, and to be able to perform the planting work while keeping the interval between the strips at the appropriate value,
There is a rice transplanter equipped with an automatic steering device that automatically steers a traveling machine body along the rows of the seedlings.

An example of this automatic steering device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 53-127113. This is because seedlings that irradiate infrared rays to the rows of the already planted seedlings adjacent to the current planting strips and receive reflected light from the already planted seedlings by a plurality of light receivers arranged side by side on the side of the traveling machine body. When a reflected light is received by the photoreceptor of the seedling row detector, the reflected light is received by the photoreceptor located just above the row of the photoreceptors. Utilizing that, by performing automatic steering so that light is always received by a predetermined photoreceptor, the relative position of the traveling machine body with respect to the row of already planted seedlings is maintained at an appropriate position, and the predetermined photoreceptor If light is received by a photoreceptor located on the left side (or right side), it is determined that the relative position of the traveling body is shifted to the right (or left), and a leftward direction is determined to eliminate the shift. (Or rightward) steering is performed by a predetermined amount.

Various other automatic steering devices for rice transplanters have been proposed, but all have different means for detecting already planted seedlings, but the automatic steering means has substantially the same configuration. .

In such a conventional rice transplanter automatic steering device,
If the planted seedlings are missing due to some reason and do not exist, or if there are obstacles etc. in front of the rice transplanter and the planted seedlings in the field are interrupted, the planted seedlings are detected by the seedling row detector. Since it is impossible, normal copying steering control is not performed by automatic steering using only the seedling row detector, and as a result, it greatly deviates from the row of already planted seedlings or automatic steering is interrupted. There was a problem.

To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-32806
There is an invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. The unmanned traveling work vehicle according to the present invention stores the data of the azimuth detector and the travel distance detector provided in the machine while working the outer periphery of the work place by manual traveling, thereby reciprocating the work place. The teaching of calculating and storing the travel course distance and the direction for each stroke is performed, and the work following the next stroke is performed by using both the automatic steering based on the teaching and the automatic steering based on the copying. That is, the automatic turning is performed by the coincidence between the traveling course distance and the actual traveling distance according to the teaching, and the normal stroke steering is performed by the automatic steering according to the copying. When the boundary is not detected, the automatic steering based on the teaching is performed. Steering is performed.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in the above invention, since the teaching work is performed simultaneously with the ground work, when this is applied to the transplanting machine, there is a possibility that the already planted seedlings may be stepped down by the machine body when turning, and may be damaged. Also, in the ground work, an external force may act on the machine in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the machine to cause a lateral displacement of the machine. Therefore, if the ground work is performed during the teaching, accurate teaching may not be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and can perform automatic steering of a transplanter that performs transplantation work in a field following a row of already planted seedlings without damaging the already planted seedlings. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic steering device of a transplanting machine that is automatically steered based on accurate teaching without generating the like.

[Means for solving the problem]

The automatic steering apparatus for a transplanter according to the present invention is an automatic steering apparatus for a transplanter, in which a planting section is attached to a traveling body, and a transplant operation is performed while automatically steering a field by teaching playback control. An azimuth detector, a mileage detector that detects a mileage, a non-working detector that detects that the planting section is at a non-working position, and a traveling direction of the transplanting machine detected by the azimuth detector. A means for identifying a traveling position in the field from the azimuth and a traveling distance in the traveling direction by the traveling distance detector, and storing the traveling position when the non-working detector detects the non-working position. And characterized in that:

[Action]

In the present invention, the planting section is positioned at the non-working position, the body is appropriately moved by manual steering without performing transplantation work, the running position at this time is sequentially specified, and the result of the specification is related to the running position. Since it is stored as information, the already planted seedlings are not damaged at the time of automatic steering, and lateral displacement does not occur during teaching.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a left side view of a riding rice transplanter equipped with an automatic steering apparatus for a working vehicle according to the present invention (hereinafter, referred to as the present invention apparatus), and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof.

In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a traveling body supported by front wheels 14 and rear wheels 15, and 6 denotes a planting portion attached to a three-point link mechanism 62 provided at a rear portion of the traveling body 1; The entire planting section 6 is moved up and down with respect to the traveling machine body 1 by elevating.

The power generated by the power unit 3 (including the engine, the transmission, etc.) mounted near the front end of the traveling body 1 is generated by the rear wheels 15.
To the front wheels by turning the steering wheel 2.
14 is steered to control the traveling direction of the traveling body 1 (steering control). The power generated by the power unit 3 is also transmitted to a seedling plant 67, which will be described later, provided in the planting unit 6.

The steering operation of the front wheel 14 can be manually performed by the handle 2 as described above, and the solenoids Sr, S
It is also possible to operate by supplying and discharging pressure oil to and from the hydraulic cylinder 27 (see FIG. 4) by electrically controlling the valve l.

The planting section 6 includes a seedling plant 67 attached to the three-point link mechanism 62 at the rear of the traveling body 1, a seedling table 60 attached above the seedling plant 67, and a lower side of the seedling plant 67. To
3 sets of floats 6 mounted to be able to swing up and down
1,61,61.

The seedling rest 60 is divided into six sections 69, 69 in the left-right direction.
The seedlings are automatically placed when the seedlings are placed on the respective seedling placement parts 69, 69.
The planting portion 6 is formed in an arc shape from the rear lower end side to the upper front side in a side view so as to be sent to 67. Then, the seedlings on each seedling mounting portion 69 are sequentially slid downward on the seedling mounting portion 69, and the seedling at the lowermost end thereof is planted in the field by the above-described seedling plant 67.

In the lower part of the frontal part of the traveling machine body 1, seedling row detectors 10l and 10r are mounted on the left and right sides in the traveling direction (only the left side is shown in FIG. 2) via rod-shaped mounting arms 11, respectively. ing. The seedling row detectors 10l and 10r both have their detection area slightly ahead of the front end of the traveling machine 1 and, between the left and right detection areas, of the seedling plant 67 of the planting section 6 attached to the rear of the traveling machine 1. It can be changed according to the planting width of the seedlings.

The seedling row detectors 10l, 10r are respectively provided with an outer case, two light sensors 10la, 10lb, 10
ra, 10rb, and emits light emitted from the light emitting element to the test object, captures reflected light from the test object by the light receiving element, and outputs a voltage signal according to the amount of received light. The two light sensors 10la, 10lb,
Are mounted in the outer case, with the optical sensor 10la being on the traveling body 1 side, and appropriately separating the respective light irradiation areas so as to be overlapped by a predetermined width. The steering of the traveling body 1 is controlled such that the outermost row of the rows of the seedlings planted in the previous process within the predetermined width is always detected in the predetermined width area. The same applies to the right row seedling detector 10r.

The non-work detector 18 (see FIG. 4) for detecting that the planting section 6 is at the non-work position is attached to the three-point link mechanism 62.

Further, azimuth detectors 8, 8 for detecting the traveling direction of the rice transplanter are provided at the right side of the driver's seat 4 provided at the rear of the traveling body 1 and at the center of the upper end of the seedling table 60 of the planting section 6. 1/2 of
It is fixed only by shifting the direction. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the azimuth detector 8.
As a geomagnetic sensor formed by winding a pair of detection windings 81 and 82 orthogonal to each other in a manner surrounding the toroidal core 80 from the outside, the toroidal core 80 is formed at a predetermined frequency oscillated by the oscillator. When AC excitation is performed and a reference voltage is applied to the detection windings 81 and 82, the detection windings 81 and 82 are turned off.
Utilizing the fact that the voltage induced at 82 becomes maximum when the directions of the geomagnetism are orthogonal to each other, a circuit as described in Sensor Technology Vol. 5 No. 4 (April 1985) is constructed. It was done. Since the frequency components of the output voltages of the detection windings 81 and 82 are twice the frequency of the exciting current of the toroidal core 80, the respective output voltages are synchronously detected based on the double frequency oscillated by the oscillator. , Each of which is taken out as an output through a separate integrating circuit and an amplifier. The output voltages of the detection windings 81 and 82 thus taken out are supplied to a steering control unit 30 described later, and the steering control unit 30 uses the inverse tangent of the ratio of these two outputs to detect the terrestrial magnetism. Using the azimuth as an absolute reference, the azimuth of the installation direction of the azimuth detector 8, in other words, the traveling direction of the rice transplanter is calculated.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system of the apparatus of the present invention, together with a plan view of a steering mechanism for the front wheels 14, 14.

In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a front axle fixed to the lower bracket of the traveling body 1 with its longitudinal direction being the left-right direction. Knuckles for supporting the left and right front wheels 14, 14 are provided at the left and right ends of the front axle 20, respectively. Arms 22,22 are pivotally supported in a horizontal plane about the other kingpins 21,21. The knuckle arms 22, 22 have their front ends
Each link member 25, 2 is attached to a front portion of a turning plate 24 that turns in a horizontal plane around a pivot 23 erected on the upper portion of the front axle 20.
The steering hydraulic cylinder 27 locks the distal end of the piston rod to the distal end of an arm 26 projecting leftward in the middle of the rotary plate 24. Installed. Accordingly, when the hydraulic cylinder 27 performs the advance operation (or the retreat operation), the rotary plate 24 rotates clockwise (or counterclockwise) in FIG. The front wheels 14, 14 are transmitted to the left and right knuckle arms 22, 22 via 25, 25, and are steered right (or left) together with the respective knuckle arms 22, 22.

At the position of the king pin 21, a steering angle detector 17 using a potentiometer is provided.
Reference numeral 17 denotes a positive voltage when the vehicle is steered to the right with respect to the straight running, and a negative voltage when the vehicle is steered to the left, in accordance with the amount of rotation of the king pin 21, i.e., the steering angle of the front wheels 14, 14. Is output.

Furthermore, at the positions of the knuckle arms 22, 22 on the left and right,
Travel distance detectors 16l, 16r using reed switches are provided, and by detecting magnetic substances attached to the front wheels 14, 14, the rotation speeds of the front wheels 14, 14 are detected, and the detected left and right rotation speeds are detected. And the running distance is calculated from the average rotation speed.

When the hydraulic oil generated by the hydraulic pump 29 is supplied to the hydraulic cylinder 27 via a four-port, three-position switching type electromagnetic directional control valve V, and the solenoid Sl of the electromagnetic directional switching valve V is excited The hydraulic oil from the hydraulic pump 27 is supplied to the retreat-side oil chamber of the hydraulic cylinder 27, and the front wheels 14, 14 are steered to the left by the operation of the steering mechanism as described above. When the solenoid Sr of V is excited, the front wheel
14,14 are steered to the right. Further, when the solenoid Sl and the solenoid Sr are both demagnetized and the electromagnetic directional control valve V is at its neutral position, the front wheels 14, 14 are maintained at the current steering angle.

On the other hand, 30 is the azimuth detector 8, the seedling detector 10l, 10r
And a steering control unit that operates as described later based on the detection results of the traveling distance detectors 16l and 16r, and steers the traveling body 1 by exciting the solenoid Sl or the solenoid Sr of the electromagnetic directional switching valve V. .

The steering control unit 30 is connected to a power supply via a key switch 31 for starting the engine, and is operable only when the engine is in a driving state.

An automatic switch 32 that is turned on when a driver seated in the driver's seat 4 instructs the steering control unit 30 to start its operation is connected to the input port a ₁ of the steering control unit 30. input ports a ₁ in accordance with the 32-on is adapted to turn on a high level.

The input port a ₂ and the input port a ₃ of the steering control unit 30 are connected to the base end of the running state selection lever 9 disposed at a position operable by the driver sitting on the driver's seat 4. The teaching travel switch 33 and the automatic steering switch 34 using micro switches arranged so as to be turned on in accordance with the locking position of are connected to each other, and both the automatic switch 32 and the teaching travel switch 33 are turned on. Input port a ₂ goes high when the switch is on, and input port a ₃ when the automatic switch 32 and the automatic steering switch 34 are on.
Turns to a high level. The travel state selection lever 9 has three lock positions: a lock position where the teaching switch 33 is turned on, a lock position where the automatic steering switch 34 is turned on, and a lock position where both switches are turned off.
The driver seated in the driver's seat 4 rotates the lever 9 to change the locking position, so that the steering control unit 30 can change the locking position. Can be selected.

The input port _{a 4, a 5, a 6} , a 7 of the steering control unit 30, seedling row detector 10l, each of 10r 's light sensor 10LA, 10 lb, 10Ra, the output of 10rb are given respectively.

Further, the input port a ₈ given the steering angle detector 17, the this output seedling row detector 10l, the traveling machine body 1 by the steering angle target values calculated by the detection result of 10r is modeled after seedling column Steering control.

The input port a ₉ are given the output of the non-working detector 18, determines the propriety of the teaching by the output.

Input port a _10, a ₁₁ are given the average output voltage of the output voltage from the detection winding 81,81,82,82 respectively two azimuth detector 8, 8, the steering control unit 30 in advance The traveling direction of the rice transplanter is calculated from the arc tangent of the ratio between these output voltages based on the stored arithmetic expression.

Further, the input port a ₁₂ the travel distance detector 16l, 16r
Pulse signal is input, the left and right rotation speeds within a predetermined time are detected by the steering control unit 30, and the average rotation speed Pa
Is calculated, and thereby the traveling distance is calculated.

The outputs of the diversion switch 35 and the diversion end switch 36 are given to the input ports a ₁₃ and a ₁₄ .

The output ports b ₁ and b ₂ of the steering control unit 30 are connected to the electromagnetic directional control valve V via respective excitation circuits (not shown).
Of which are respectively connected to the solenoid Sr and solenoid Sl, the output port b ₁ (or the output port b ₂₎ a high level solenoid Sr in response to the output (or solenoid Sl) is excited, the hydraulic cylinder 27 is advanced (or withdrawal The front wheels 14, 14 are steered rightward (or leftward) by the above-described operation of the steering mechanism.

Now, the operation of the device of the present invention configured as described above will be described. FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of a field for explaining a traveling route of the rice transplanter, wherein a dashed line indicates teaching driving by manual steering, a broken line indicates automatic steering based on teaching, and a two-dot chain line indicates automatic steering by scanning. Are shown respectively. In the teaching travel, the non-work detector detects that the planting section 6 is at the non-work position provided on the ascending side.
After confirming the detection by 18 and confirming it, the driver manually operates the steering wheel 2 to move the planting field d from the base point along the outer periphery from the base point at the lower left of FIG.
The traveling machine 1 is caused to travel at the first stroke start position separated in the horizontal direction in the figure, and the traveling direction and traveling distance of the traveling machine 1 during the teaching traveling are stored at regular intervals for each turn. Based on this storage, a calculation described later is performed, and a traveling route is set.

Next, the rice planting operation of the first step is performed to the turning point on the upper side of the field shown in FIG. 5 along the traveling route set based on the teaching, and after turning, the row of the seedlings planted in the first step is removed. Automatic steering is performed to the other end of the field following the outermost side. When the automatic steering by the copying is completed, the automatic steering is performed while the rice planting operation is performed to the base point along the traveling route taught on the outer periphery of the field.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart at the start of the steering control. When the driver is to perform the automatic steering, the driver first turns on the automatic switch 32 to instruct the steering control unit 30 to start the operation. Then, the traveling state selection lever 9 is rotated to lock it at a locking position for selecting the teaching traveling, and the teaching traveling is performed with the teaching traveling switch 33 turned on. After the teaching traveling is completed, the driver rotates the traveling state selection lever 9 and locks the lever at a locking position where the automatic steering switch 34 is turned on, thereby automatically operating the steering control unit 30. Start steering.

When the key switch 31 is turned on and connected to the power source, the steering control unit 30 performs, as shown in the flowchart of FIG.
First the automatic switch by its input ports a ₁ level
Check the on / off status of 32. And has an automatic switch 32 is turned off, when the input port a ₁ is at low level,
Steering control unit 30 resets the memory, registers and all flags, ends up automatic switch 32 is turned on, also has an automatic switch 32 is turned on, the input port a ₁ is a high level If, by then the input port a ₂ and input port a ₃ levels examined off states of the teaching travel switch 33 and the automatic steering switch 34, the teaching travel switch 33 is turned on, the input port a ₂ is a high level when it is, according to the teachings running subroutine will be described later, also has an automatic steering switch 34 is turned on, when the input port a ₃ is a high level, respectively operate according to the automatic steering subroutine will be described later, further teaches the travel switch
If both the switch 33 and the automatic steering switch 34 are in the off state, the control waits until one of them is turned on. As described above, the automatic steering switch 34 and the teaching travel switch 33 are disposed so as to be turned on at different locking positions of the single traveling state selection lever 9, so that they are both turned on. Instead, the driver turns on and off the automatic switch 32 and rotates the traveling state selection lever 9 to instruct the steering control unit 30 to perform operations according to the standby state, the teaching traveling subroutine, and the automatic steering subroutine, respectively. Can be ordered.

The above-mentioned teaching traveling starts traveling from the base point position at the lower left in FIG. 5, and causes traveling vehicle 1 to travel along the outer periphery of the field,
The process returns to the first stroke start position and ends. This running mode is not limited to a quadrangle in plan view as shown in FIG. 5, but may be a polygonal shape that surrounds the outer periphery of the field by combining straight running and turning at a corner. In addition, it is not necessary to maintain a strictly straight traveling state even when traveling straight.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a teaching traveling subroutine showing the operation contents of the steering control unit 30 during such teaching traveling. When the above condition is satisfied and the process proceeds to the teaching traveling subroutine, the steering control unit 30 counts up a counter i for counting the number of samples, and the traveling distance detectors 16l and 16r.
, The traveling distance from the start position is detected, and the traveling direction Di of the body 1 is determined from the average voltage of the output voltages of the two detection coils 81, 82 of the azimuth detectors 8, 8 for each predetermined distance La, as described above.
Is calculated. Further, the steering angle Si from the steering angle detector 17 is also calculated. These data are stored for each predetermined distance La until the turning switch 35 is turned on. 8 and 9 show an azimuth detection subroutine for detecting an azimuth and a steering angle detection subroutine for detecting a steering angle, and show a detection method when detecting the azimuth and the steering angle in the teaching subroutine. . Since the traveling direction and the steering angle fluctuate minutely, the azimuth and the steering angle data are obtained by averaging a predetermined number of times Na.

When the driver manually steers the traveling body 1 to the turning position, the turning switch 35 is turned on. When the turning switch 35 is turned on, the relationship between the steering angle Si and the traveling direction Di is obtained, and the relationship is stored for each turning, and the steering angle data when the traveling direction changes, such as during automatic turning. Use as

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the control contents of the turning subroutine, in which the turning number N _m in which the turning number N is stored first.
Is calculated by adding 1 to. Note at first Eko Since N _m is a zero N is one. Then calculation of the average direction D _N to Eko and Eko detection before the distance L _IN is performed. Then, the previous post-turn distance L _2N−1 is divided from the pre _- turn distance L _IN to obtain the travel distance L _N. Next, it is determined whether the number of turns N is 2 or more. When the number of turns N is 1, the driver immediately starts turning, and when the number of turns N is 2 or more, the current average direction _DN and the previous average direction D _N are used. _N-1 and previous turn N
The center angle θ _N−1 of −1 is obtained, and the radius of curvature R _N−1 of the previous turning _N−1 is obtained from the center angle θ _N−1 and the previous turning distance _PN-1 . By using the radius of curvature R _N-1 and the central angle θ _N-1 , the inflection point (vertex of the polygon) (x _N-1 , y _N-1 ) of the previous turning is set to the north of the geomagnetic field in the positive direction of the y-axis. Then, east is obtained as the xy coordinate system with the y-axis positive direction, and then the reversal is started. When the turning is completed, the driver turns on the turning end switch 36 and teaches the steering control unit 30 that the turning is completed. After EKO completion, steering control unit 30 detects the EKO after distance L _2N,該回Kogo distance L distance before Eko from _2N L _IN
To obtain the turning distance P _N. Then, the number of turns N is replaced with N _m and stored, and the average direction D _N , the turn distance P _N , and the distance L before turn are stored.
_{The IN} , the turning distance L _2N , and the inflection point (x _N , y _N ) are stored.
This operation is repeated until the vehicle reaches the first stroke start position and the teaching travel ends.

The teaching travel ends when the driver turns the travel state selection lever 9 to turn off the teaching travel switch 33.

Now, after performing the teaching travel in this way, the driver:
The planting unit 6 is lowered to the field scene, power is transmitted to the planting unit 6, and preparation for rice planting work is performed. Next, the traveling state selection lever 9 is turned, and the automatic traveling switch 34 is turned on to instruct the steering control unit 30 to perform an automatic steering operation.

FIG. 11 shows the operation details of the automatic steering subroutine.
FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a traveling route setting subroutine. In response to the turning on of the automatic steering switch 34, the steering control unit 30 specifies the operation according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in the traveling route setting subroutine, the coordinates (x _N , y _N ) of the inflection point of each turning position calculated in the teaching traveling subroutine are set to the traveling start position as the origin, and the first turning direction D ₁ Is rotated as the positive direction of the y-axis. Thereby, the coordinates of the first inflection point become (O, y ₁ ′). The coordinates of the N inflection point becomes _{(x 'N, y' N} ). Then the maximum value of the x-direction, the maximum value x _'max divided by the planting width d, obtains the quotient m. The quotient m becomes the maximum number of strokes, and the travel route of each stroke is set to its initial value (x ₀ , y
₀ ) is 1.5 times the planting width d from the traveling start position (x ₀ , y ₀ ).
Moves in the axial forward direction and set respectively by separated by planted width d in the x-axis positive direction, each of the intersections of the outer circumference of the travel path _{(X m, Y m, Y} m) Request (see FIG. 5) . And the intersection y
Obtains distances l _n of the stroke from coordinate, seek EKO distance l _ln further subtracting the EKO required distance α from the distances l _n. A traveling route is set based on the traveling route thus obtained and the outer peripheral traveling route during the teaching traveling.

When the travel route is set, the number of travels m is counted. At the time of the first travel, that is, when m = 1, rice transplanting is performed by automatic steering based on data of the first travel of the travel route. automatically Eko comes to distance l _11. From the second step onward, the rice planting operation is performed by the automatic steering following the outermost row of the rows of the seedlings planted in the first step by the seedling row detectors 10l and 10r.

In this automatic steering by copying, the irradiation area on the field surface of each of the two optical sensors 10la, 10lb, 10ra, and 10rb provided in the seedling row detectors 10l and 10r is reduced by half of each irradiation area. The steering is performed so that the outermost row of the seedlings to be copied is always detected in the overlapped irradiation area, and the rows of the seedlings are located on the left side of the traveling machine 1. If, when the outermost row Article of the seedling is detected by the optical sensor 10LA (or 10 lb) side, the output ports b ₁ of the steering control section 30 (or the
b ₂ ) is output, and the traveling body 1 travels rightward (or leftward).

At this time, if the outermost row of the seedlings becomes undetectable due to lack of stock or the like and the automatic steering cannot be performed, the current azimuth and steering angle are input from the respective detectors, and the detection is performed. the direction D _M of the M step are compared taught the azimuth D, it is automatically steered to substantially coincide with the steering angle Si is close to zero. The automatic steering based on the teaching runway is continued until the outermost of the row of the seedlings can be detected.

In this embodiment, the direction detectors 8 and 8 are fixed to the planting section 6 having a small swing angle and a small movement with respect to the traveling body 1 and the body 1 having a quick response to the control. The direction is shifted by 1/2 of the minimum resolution, the output voltage is averaged, and the average is used as the azimuth data. In the case of storage, the azimuth detector 8 provided in the planting part 6 with little movement is used. When used for detecting the automatic steering control, the direction detector 8 provided on the traveling body 1 having good responsiveness may be used.

Further, in the present embodiment, the reed switch provided on the front wheel 2, 2 knuckle arm was used as the distance detectors 16l, 16r, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a proximity switch or other non-contact switch may be used. Alternatively, a wave detection type sensor such as an optical sensor or a microwave sensor may be used, and the speed may be obtained by the Doppler effect to thereby obtain the distance.

〔effect〕

As described above in detail, in the apparatus of the present invention, since the teaching traveling is performed by detecting the ascending state of the planting portion, there is no occurrence of lateral displacement or the like during the teaching operation, and the already planted seedling is damaged at the time of turning. Not even.

Also, during the automatic steering following the already planted seedling, even if the already planted seedling cannot be detected, since the automatic steering is performed along the traveling route set based on the teaching memory, the automatic steering is interrupted. It has excellent effects such as being able to be performed without the need.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a left side view of a riding rice transplanter equipped with the apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the apparatus of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a schematic plan view of a field explaining a traveling route,
The figure is a flowchart showing the operation of the device of the present invention. 1 ... traveling body, 6 ... planting part, 8,8 ... direction detector,
9 ... running state detection lever, 10l, 10r ... seedling row detector, 1
6l, 16r …… Driving distance detector, 17… Steering angle detector, 18…
… Non-work detector, 30 …… Steering control unit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An automatic steering apparatus for a transplanter, wherein a planting section is mounted on a traveling machine body and performs transplantation while automatically steering in a field by teaching playback control, comprising: an azimuth detector; A traveling distance detector for detecting, a non-working detector for detecting that the planting portion is at a non-working position, an azimuth in the traveling direction of the transplanter detected by the azimuth detector, and the traveling distance detector. The travel position in the field is specified from the travel distance in the traveling direction by the travel direction,
Means for storing the traveling position when the non-working detector detects the non-working position.