JP3217561U - Drone mounted sprayer - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a drone-equipped spray device used for artificial pollination by flying a drone vertically and horizontally between various fruit trees such as apples and spraying pollen for pest control and pollination.
An airframe body, a plurality of rotor arms extending radially from the center of the airframe body, a plurality of electric motors fixed to the tip of the rotor arm, and a plurality of propellers connected to the electric motor. And a drone comprising a plurality of legs 6 extending downward from the bottom surface of the fuselage main body, includes a spray device having spray nozzles 11a and 11b capable of spraying liquid spray material pumped by a pump in an arbitrary direction. . The spraying device accommodates the hose guide 14 extending in the horizontal and horizontal directions from the machine body and the hose, electric motor, and rotary encoder connected to the tip of the hose guide and connecting the spray nozzle. The spray part 15a is provided.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a spraying device mainly used for pest control and artificial pollination mounted on an unmanned small flying vehicle called a multicopter or drone that freely flies in the air with a plurality of propellers using a remote controller. In the description of the present invention, the unmanned small aircraft is referred to as “drone”.

  In the drone, a plurality of rotors can rotate independently in the direction in which the adjacent rotors rotate independently, and it is possible to fly freely up and down and left and right by controlling the number of rotations, and in recent years drone maneuverability has drastically improved . Unmanned helicopters and drones are widely used for spraying chemicals such as agricultural chemicals on farms and mountain forests, but most of them are sprayed from the top to the bottom using the air flow of the propeller. In such spraying, there are cases where the drug is sprayed to a place outside the spraying area such as farmland or not sprayed to the target area. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately and efficiently spray a sprayed material such as a medicine on a spraying region or a spraying target.

  In addition, artificial pollination work that attaches pollen to each flower during the flowering period of fruit trees and pollination work that uses bees are performed, but artificial pollination work is necessary to manually pollinate each flower. The work time and work labor are very large, and pollination with bees has disadvantages such as poor reliability of pollination.

  Patent documents 1 and 2 exist as prior art which spreads agricultural chemicals etc. using a multirotor type helicopter. Patent Document 1 discloses a method of spraying chemicals such as agricultural chemicals in the air using a multirotor helicopter and the structure of the multirotor helicopter. Here, the nozzle 8 is arranged immediately below the rotor 4 of the multicopter, and the medicine is sprayed from the nozzle into the blown-down air flow generated by the rotation of the rotor, and the medicine is dispersed.

  Patent Document 2 discloses a fluid spraying device for an unmanned air vehicle in which a mist-like fluid such as agricultural chemicals sprayed from a nozzle is vigorously sprayed downward while realizing weight reduction of the unmanned air vehicle. In the downwash by the rotor, by arranging the flow regulating members 13A to 13D above the nozzles 11A to 11D, a fast flow rectification is generated below the flow straightening member, and the agricultural chemicals and the like are vigorously moved downward from the nozzle. Configured to spray. In these documents 1 and 2, a pesticide or the like is sprayed downward using a downdraft generated by rotation of a rotor.

  Patent Document 3 exists as a prior art in which artificial pollination is performed by spraying pollen from above on a fruit tree using a drone. Patent Document 3 takes in a part of the air blow Wp from the drone 2 and guides the pollen P discharged from the pollen discharger 4 by the taken air blow Wp to predetermined spraying ports Sp and Sq. When the pollen P is provided in the air blower Wp and can be stirred before the pollen P is discharged from the spray port Sp, Sq, and is released from the spray port Sp, Sq. Discloses an artificial pollinator that can disperse pollen P in a more uniform and stabilized state without being unevenly distributed in one direction. And in patent document 3, pollen is sprayed from upper direction with respect to the fruit tree used as a pollination object using a drone.

  In Patent Document 3, the pollen spraying unit includes a hose holding mechanism that holds the hose member and is configured to be able to change the direction and / or position of the spraying port, but the changed direction and position of the spraying port is It is fixed and does not constitute the nozzle injection direction that can be arbitrarily changed by radio control. Moreover, it is comprised so that the pollen P accommodated in the container part 3 may send out pollen by the screw mechanism part 13, and it does not pump pollen with a pump, and the pollen to be used is a powder and is not what uses liquid pollen. .

  The present invention is not intended to spread a wide range of herbicides such as herbicides on farms, etc., but is intended to be applied to specific areas such as orchards and plantations, and drones are apples, pears, peaches, grapes , Mandarin oranges, cherries, and other fruit trees that fly vertically and horizontally, and mainly used for artificial pollination by spraying pollen on the petals targeted for pest control and pollination of various fruit trees and plants. is there.

Japanese Patent No. 5890569 JP-A-2018-109 JP 2018-14929 A

  The present invention provides a drone-equipped spraying device that is used for artificial pollination by flying drones between fruit trees such as apples up and down, left and right, pest control of various fruit trees and spraying pollen on petals The task is to do.

  The present invention uses a drone to control liquid insect pesticides and pollen for pollination, etc., which are pumped from the pump against the pests that are targeted for pest control and pollination from any position. It is possible to realize a drone-equipped spraying device that selects a direction determined to be sprayed and sprays vigorously from the spray nozzle.

  The present invention includes an airframe body 2, a plurality of rotor arms 3 extending radially from the center of the airframe body, a plurality of electric motors 4 fixed to the tip of the rotor arm, and a plurality of electric motors connected to the electric motor. In the drone 1 comprising the propeller 5 and a plurality of legs 6 extending downward from the bottom surface of the fuselage main body, the liquid spray LM pumped by the pump P can be directed in an arbitrary direction, and an injection nozzle 11a capable of jetting , 11b. A drone-mounted spray device including the spray device 10 having 11b.

  The spraying device 10 of the present invention has spray nozzles 11a and 11b that spray a liquid spray toward a spray target, a tank 12 that stores the liquid spray, and sucks the liquid spray from the tank and pumps it to the spray nozzle. A pump P, an open front end HP is arranged near the bottom of the tank and connected to the pump, connected to the injection nozzle via the pump, and the liquid spray is circulated, and the main body and horizontal hose Hose guide 14 that accommodates hoses 13d and 13e that extend in the horizontal direction and are disposed in the horizontal left-right direction, and is connected to the tip of the hose guide and accommodates the hose at the injection nozzle connection portion, electric motor 17, and rotary encoder 18. And spraying portions 15a and 15b for mounting spray nozzles connected to the hose.

  The hose guide 14 of the present invention is attached to the upper side of the main body 2 and to the upper side of the propeller 5 as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, and the injection nozzles 11 a and 11 b are arranged outside the rotating outer periphery of the propeller 5. Is done. As shown in FIG. 4, the hose guide 14 of the present invention is attached to the lower side of the machine body 4 and to the lower side of the propeller 5, and the injection nozzles 11a and 11b are arranged inside the rotating outer periphery of the propeller.

  The injection nozzles 11a and 11b of the present invention are connected to the electric motor 17 and the rotary encoder 18, and are configured to rotate 90 degrees in the vertical direction with the rotary shaft 16 as a fulcrum. The liquid spray applied to the present invention. The product is a liquid pest control drug or a liquid pollen.

  Since the spray device of the present invention is mounted on a drone capable of flying in any direction, up, down, left, and right, a liquid spray is made by flying the drone up, down, left, and right between fruit trees from various positions toward a desired portion. Can be efficiently sprayed. In the present invention, since the liquid spray material pumped by the pump is sprayed from the spray nozzle, the liquid spray material can be vigorously sprayed to a certain distance without being affected by the air flow of the propeller.

  In addition, since the spray nozzle of the present invention is configured to be able to spray the liquid spray in any direction, it is diagonally upward, diagonally downward, and horizontal with respect to fruit trees and petals that are subject to pest control and pollination. Therefore, liquid sprays such as an exterminating agent and pollen for pollination can be sprayed toward the position that is determined to be optimal, so that efficient and effective pest control and artificial pollination can be performed.

It is the schematic front view which showed typically the drone mounting spray apparatus of this invention. It is the schematic plan view which showed typically the drone mounting spray apparatus of this invention. It is the expanded sectional front view which showed the structural example of the spraying apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is the schematic front view which showed typically the other structural example of the spraying apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is the expansion partial section front view showing the example of composition of the injection nozzle with which the spraying part concerning the present invention is equipped. It is a figure explaining the flight position of the drone which concerns on this invention, and the injection state of an injection nozzle.

  An embodiment of a drone-mounted spray device (hereinafter simply referred to as “spray device”) according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The spray device of the present invention is used by being mounted on a drone. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the drone 1 includes an airframe body 2, a plurality of rotor arms 3 extending radially from the center of the airframe body, a plurality of electric motors 4 fixed to the tip of the rotor arm, It is comprised from the several propeller 5 connected to a motor, and the several leg part 6 extended below from the bottom face of a body main body. The drone 1 includes a spray device 10 having spray nozzles 11a and 11b that can spray a liquid spray (hereinafter simply referred to as “spray”) LM sucked from a tank 12 and pumped by a pump P in an arbitrary direction. It has.

  The machine body 2 is disposed at the center where the rotor arm 3 intersects, and functions as an accommodating portion for accommodating the following various devices and the like while linking the rotor arms to which a plurality of propellers are connected. In addition to the pump P and the hose through which the sprayed material circulates in the main body, illustration is omitted in the drawing, but a flight controller, GPS, attitude control device, wireless communication unit, etc. Various devices for exhibiting the drone function, a drive control unit such as a pump, a battery, and the like are arranged. In the figure, the main body is cylindrical, but it is needless to say that the body can have any shape such as a prism. Note that a remote controller (hereinafter simply referred to as “remote controller”) not shown is attached to the drone, and the flight of the drone is wirelessly controlled by the remote controller and freely controlled. The configuration of the drone and remote control is well known, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The rotor arm 3 is a cylindrical body and is wired from the battery. The electric motors 4 are rotated in different directions adjacent to each other, and each is controlled independently. The propeller 5 is made of a high-strength plastic and is attached so as to exert a driving force in the vertical direction. In addition, although the number of rotor arms, electric motors, and propellers is four in the drawing, it may be five or six depending on the scale of the drone, the load of the spraying device, and the like. The legs 6 support the aircraft body at a certain height from the ground when the drone is landed, and stabilize the drone when taking off and landing. The legs are not limited to four. It can also be formed in four or more.

  In the present invention, liquid pest control drugs and liquid pollen pollen are mainly used as sprays sprayed from the spray nozzle, but the sprays are not limited to these, and liquid herbicides, etc. Pesticides, tree growth promoters, fertilizers and the like can also be used. In addition, the pollen to be used is liquid pollen for artificial pollination mixed with a bulking agent. Areas to be sprayed are orchards, gardens, roadside trees, garden trees, etc., and sprayed objects are various fruit trees such as apples and pears in orchards, planted trees, planting trunks, leaves, and petals to be pollinated. . The injection nozzle will be described later.

  In addition, the body 2 is provided with a transparent window 7 at an appropriate portion of the outer surface as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, and the camera C that can be photographed outside is passed through the transparent window as shown in FIG. Can be detachably mounted. Any number of transparent windows can be formed at appropriate locations near the top or bottom of the body.

  The flight position of the drone can be set in advance by GPS according to the position and situation of the trees to be sprayed, etc., but the image taken by the camera C of the upper, lateral, and lower sides of the drone is displayed on the remote control display. Since it can be confirmed, the operator (user) can clearly confirm the flight position of the drone, the position and situation of the spray target, and the like while viewing the image displayed on the display unit. Thereby, the injection of the sprayed material from the injection nozzle, the injection direction, and the like can be arbitrarily determined.

  According to the present invention having such a configuration, it is possible to spray by freely selecting a spray position by causing a drone capable of small-scale flight to fly vertically and horizontally between fruit trees. Sprays can be efficiently sprayed on the trunk, leaves, and petals to be pollinated from fruit trees and the like from diagonally upward, diagonally downward, and horizontal directions.

  The spraying device 10 is mounted on the drone 1 and includes injection nozzles 11a and 11b, a tank 12, a pump P, hoses 13a to 13e, a hose guide 14, and spraying portions 15a and 15b as shown in FIG. . The spray nozzles 11a and 11b are disposed in a spraying section to be described later, and spray the sprayed material pumped from the pump P toward the spray targets such as leaves, trunks, stems, petals and the like of fruit trees. is there.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the injection nozzle is connected to the electric motor 17 and the rotary encoder 18 and is configured to rotate 90 degrees in the vertical direction about the rotating shaft 16 as a fulcrum, and can be changed to any injection direction. It is. The angle position of the injection nozzle is detected by a rotary encoder, and the electric motor is wirelessly operated to change the angle of the injection direction by 90 degrees in the vertical direction. Thereby, it can rotate 45 degree | times from a horizontal state to an up-down direction, and can inject by selecting the injection direction in diagonally upward, diagonally downward, and arbitrary directions of a horizontal direction. In FIG. 5, the right and left jet nozzles 11 a are illustrated because the right and left jet nozzles have the same configuration. Similarly, only the configuration of the right spray unit 15a is shown in the spray unit to which the spray nozzle is attached.

  In addition, an on-off valve is provided in the vicinity of the spray outlet of the hose on the pump side connected to each injection nozzle, and the injection nozzle to be pumped can be arbitrarily selected by opening and closing the on-off valve. In consideration of the position of the spray target, etc., the sprayed material can be sprayed from only one spray nozzle. Appropriate means such as a configuration in which an opening / closing means is provided at the injection port of each injection nozzle or a configuration in which a plurality of pumps are used can be used as means for arbitrarily selecting the nozzle to be injected. Note that the selection of the injection nozzle is also performed by wireless instruction or manually.

  For example, if the spray target is far from the flight route of the drone, such as when the drone is flying low, and the spray spray does not reach the target, the spray is pumped from only one hose and only one spray nozzle (See FIG. 6L). That is, depending on the position of the spray object, one of the spray nozzles can be arbitrarily selected and used, and spray efficiency can be improved.

  The tank 12 is a container for storing the sprayed material, and is attached to the tank attachment portion 19 attached to the lower part of the main body 2 so as to be attached or detached. The pump P sucks the sprayed material stored in the tank through a hose and pumps it to the injection nozzles 11a and 11b. The pump is constituted by a gear pump, and is connected to an electric motor (not shown) and driven by the electric motor. In addition, a pump is not limited to a gear pump, It can also be comprised with a vane pump, a plunger pump, etc.

  The hose is a tubular body made of rubber or soft plastic that can be bent, and the sprayed material circulates inside the hose. The hose is connected to the pump from the tank to the pump, the hose is connected to the injection nozzles 11a and 11b from the motor, and the hose 13b and 13c is arranged inside the machine body, and the hose 13b and 13c is arranged inside the machine body. The hose 13d and the hose 13e are connected in the horizontal and horizontal directions at the end of the machine body.

  The hose 13a has an open front end HP disposed near the bottom of the tank, and the other end is connected to the pump. The hose 13b has a front end installed in the pump and the other end connected to one injection nozzle 11a. The hose 13c is a hose extending from the pump to the end of the machine body. The hose 13c is connected to the pump at the front end and connected to the other injection nozzle 11b. A hose. The hose 14d communicates with the hose 13b, is disposed in the horizontal right direction at the end of the machine body, is accommodated in a hose guide to be described later, and is connected to one of the injection nozzles 11a. The hose 13c is in communication with the hose 13c and is arranged in the horizontal left direction at the end of the machine body. The hose is accommodated in a hose guide described later and connected to the other injection nozzle 11b.

  The hose guide 14 is attached to the upper or lower end of the machine body and extends in the left-right direction substantially horizontally with the machine body from the center of the machine body to the spraying portions 15a and 15b connected to both ends. Is provided. The hose guide accommodates the hose 13d and hose 13e arranged in the horizontal left and right directions and guides them to the spraying portions 15a and 15b. The hose guide is preferably made of strong plastic, and has a cylindrical body with wiring from the battery in addition to the hose.

  The spraying portions 15a and 15b are connected to the left and right tip portions of the hose guide 14, and are connected to the spray nozzles at the tips of the hose 13d and hose 13e arranged in the horizontal and horizontal directions as shown in FIG. The injection nozzles 11a and 11b are arranged to accommodate the part, the electric motor 17, and the rotary encoder 18.

  In the spraying device having such a configuration, the sprayed material filled in the tank is sucked by the pump driven by the electric motor through the hose and sent to the pump. The spray supplied to the pump is pumped to the injection nozzle through a hose. The sprayed material that has been fed can be sprayed toward a position that is determined to be the optimal spray target by arbitrarily changing the spray direction of the spray nozzle.

  The spray start and stop of the spray device according to the present invention, the spray direction, the operation of the spray nozzle, the spray amount, and the like are wirelessly controlled by a remote controller in a separate system from the drone. A driving mechanism (not shown) such as a pump and an injection nozzle of the spraying device is constituted by a gear or the like connected to a rotating portion or the like, and is rotated and rotated by an electric motor. The operation and stop of the electric motor 17 of the pump and spraying portions 15a and 15b can be arbitrarily controlled by radio. You may utilize the battery mounted in a drone as a power supply of electric motors, such as these pumps. That is, according to the present invention, the spraying start and stop of spraying, the spraying direction of spraying from the spray nozzle, and the like can be variably controlled by remote control of the remote controller.

  As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the hose guide 14 according to the present invention is attached to the upper side of the machine body 2 directly or via a mounting portion, and the hose guide is located above the propeller 5. It is attached to be located on the side. And the injection nozzles 11a and 11b arrange | positioned at a spray part are arrange | positioned so that it may be located outside the rotation outer periphery of a propeller. As described above, the spray nozzle is arranged on the upper side of the propeller and outside the outer periphery of the propeller so that the spray can be directed in any direction without being affected by the downdraft caused by the rotation of the propeller of the drone. Can be sprayed toward.

  As shown in FIG. 4, another embodiment of the arrangement position of the injection nozzle is such that the hose guide 14 is mounted on the lower side of the machine body 2 and on the lower side of the propeller 5, and the injection nozzles 11 a and 11 b. Is arranged so as to be located inside the rotating outer periphery of the propeller. In this embodiment as well, it is possible to avoid the influence from the downdraft caused by the drone propeller as in the above embodiment. In this embodiment, the hose guide may be extended and attached to the outside of the propeller position so that the injection nozzle is positioned outside the rotating outer periphery of the propeller. With such a configuration, the sprayed material pumped from the pump can be vigorously sprayed in an arbitrary direction far to some extent. In addition, since the structure of the injection nozzle of another Example is the same as the Example mentioned above, description of the structure of the injection nozzle etc. of another Example is abbreviate | omitted.

  Fill the tank with spray, attach the tank to the fuselage body, place the tip of the hose near the bottom of the tank, complete the drone's flight preparation, and between the fruit trees depending on the height of the fruit trees The flying height of the drone is judged to be optimal for spraying, for example, the low position, intermediate position, and high position are set by GPS or are operated by remote control operation, and the operator (user) determines the injection direction of the injection nozzle, The injection nozzle to be used is determined, and the electric motor is operated by operating the remote controller to spray the spray. In this way, the drone flies while being wirelessly controlled by the remote controller and sprays the sprayed material in an arbitrary direction to perform spraying.

  The spraying operation will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 shows an example of the flying position of the drone and the injection state of the injection nozzle in the spraying operation. A drone is made to fly between a fruit tree and a high position (H), an intermediate position (M), and a low position (L). When left and right fruit trees to be sprayed are close to each other, the drone is allowed to fly over the upper part (high position H) of the fruit tree where the left and right fruit trees approach, and both jets are directed diagonally downward from the jet nozzle. The spray is sprayed from the nozzle. The drone is made to fly in the middle position (M) of the fruit tree where the right and left fruit trees approach, and sprayed in the horizontal direction from both spray nozzles and sprayed. When the left and right fruit trees to be sprayed are separated from each other, the drone can fly to a low position (L) and spray from only one spray nozzle to spray. Although the figure shows an example of flying in the vertical direction (from the front to the back), the drone can also fly between the fruit trees in the horizontal direction (left-right direction).

  When spraying and spraying is completed, the drone is returned and the tank is removed from the fuselage body to prepare for the next spraying operation. In addition, although the image image | photographed with the camera can also be confirmed also with the monitor image of a remote control, after a drone returns, the camera can be removed from the main body and the image imaged can be confirmed, and a spray leak etc. can be confirmed.

  The drone-equipped spraying device according to the present invention is used for orchards such as apples and pears, plantations for planting trees, various fruit trees such as garden trees and roadside trees, pest control for trees, leaves and stems, and petals for pollination. It can be used when artificial pollination is carried out by spraying pollen. In addition, it is possible to spray agricultural chemicals and the like, and it can be widely used for watering plants and the like, extermination of small harmful animals such as wasps, and spraying fertilizers.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Drone 2 Aircraft body 3 Rotor arm 4 Electric motor 5 Propeller 6 Leg 7 Transparent window 10 Spraying device 11a, 11b Spray nozzle 12 Tank 13a-13e Hose 14 Hose guide 15a, 15b Spraying part 16 Rotating shaft 17 Electric motor 18 Rotary encoder 19 Tank mounting part P Pump C Camera HP Hose tip LM Liquid spray

Claims (6)

  A main body, a plurality of rotor arms extending radially from the center of the main body, a plurality of electric motors fixed to the tip of the rotor arm, a plurality of propellers connected to the electric motor, and the main body A drone comprising a plurality of legs extending downward from the bottom surface of the slab, comprising a spray device having a spray nozzle capable of spraying a liquid spray material pumped by a pump in an arbitrary direction Spraying equipment.   The spray device is opened with an injection nozzle that injects the liquid spray toward the spray target, a tank that stores the liquid spray, a pump that sucks the liquid spray from the tank and pumps it to the injection nozzle. Disposed near the bottom of the tank and connected to the pump, connected to the injection nozzle via the pump, and the liquid spray is circulated, and extends horizontally and horizontally from the fuselage body and horizontally and horizontally. A hose guide for housing a hose, and a spraying section for connecting a hose at an injection nozzle connecting portion connected to the tip of the hose guide, an electric motor, and a rotary encoder, and mounting the injection nozzle connected to the hose. The drone-mounted spray device according to claim 1.   The drone-mounted spray device according to claim 2, wherein the hose guide is attached to an upper side of the airframe body and to an upper side of the propeller, and the spray nozzle is disposed outside a rotating outer periphery of the propeller. .   3. The drone-mounted spray device according to claim 2, wherein the hose guide is attached to a lower side of the body body and to a lower side of the propeller, and the injection nozzle is disposed on the inner side of the rotating outer periphery of the propeller. .   The said injection nozzle is connected to an electric motor and a rotary encoder, and it is comprised so that it may rotate 90 degree | times to an up-down direction by using a rotating shaft as a fulcrum. The drone-mounted spray device as described. The drone-mounted spray device according to claim 1, wherein the liquid spray is a liquid pesticide or a liquid pollen.

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