JP7392375B2 - Cultivation management system using grain inspection equipment - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a grain inspection device for determining the quality of grain produced by farmers, etc., and a cultivation management system using the device.

Traditionally, the quality inspection (grain inspection after shipment from the farmer) of grains produced by farmers (e.g. brown rice and milled rice) has been carried out by the government, which states that ``Rice producers can undergo quality inspection.'' (Article 3 of the Agricultural Products Inspection Act). In other words, rice producers such as farmers are working with agricultural cooperatives such as JA (Agricultural Cooperative Association) for the purpose of conducting fair and smooth transactions, ensuring traceability on rice distribution routes, and gaining trust in quality. Currently, products are actively undergoing quality inspections.

At JA (Agricultural Cooperative Association) and other organizations, agricultural product inspectors currently visually assess the quality of grains, but recently, grain quality discriminators (see, for example, Patent Document 1) have been developed that can measure the proportion of colored grains, etc. Development is progressing, and measuring instruments are being used as supplements. In addition, color sorting machines for removing colored grains, etc., have been made smaller and cheaper, and models with improved performance have been introduced for the purpose of use by farmers (for example, Patent Document 2 reference).

However, in the color sorter described in Patent Document 2, colored grains caused by pests, damaged grains caused by burnt rice, colored grains such as green immature grains, unhulled rice, milky white grains, and foreign objects such as pebbles are all sorted into one. These products are included in the standard and defined as defective products, and are distinguished from non-defective products. For example, by comparing the weight of fine products that have been sorted and sorted as good products with the weight of sorted products that have been sorted and sorted as defective products, the proportion of defective products in the raw materials can be calculated, or The sorting rate of the machine is calculated (for example, Patent Document 3).
In other words, conventional color sorting machines detect colored grains caused by pests, damaged grains caused by burnt rice, green immature grains, colored grains such as unhulled rice, milky white grains, and foreign substances such as pebbles. It was not possible to investigate in detail what the percentage was. Conventionally, the analysis of defective items in such defective products involves separating the removed defective products into black carton and visually checking them, or placing the defective products into a grain quality discriminator and using another measuring device. I was doing some analysis.

Furthermore, conventional color sorting machines can feed back color-sorted sorting data to farmers, based on defective products, such as next year's rice cultivation conditions in the field, and use it for next year's cultivation management. There wasn't.

JP2016-125867A Patent No. 6052287 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-216650

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the technical object of the present invention is to provide a grain inspection device that can implement quality inspection by effectively utilizing color-sorted sorting data. Another technical challenge is to effectively utilize the data from this grain inspection device to provide farmers with a cultivation management system that helps them manage rice cultivation for the next year.

The invention according to claim 1 provides a chute arranged at an inclination to allow a raw material to be inspected to flow down, an optical detection means for detecting an inspection object falling from a lower end of the chute, and a detection result by the optical detection means. an ejector means for sorting out the objects to be inspected based on the ejector means; a discharge hopper for discharging the inspection objects sorted by the ejector means separately; a calculation means for determining the quality of the defective product into a plurality of grades including grains damaged by pests, grains damaged by burnt rice, green immature grains, unhulled rice, milky white grains, and foreign matter; a grain preparation line including a grain inspection device having display means for displaying quality results and sorting results; an agricultural data collaboration platform that aggregates agricultural data; and the calculation of the grain inspection device in the grain preparation line. A cultivation management system in which a server that stores grain preparation and processing data including at least the quality results and the sorting results obtained by means, and a mobile terminal that provides cultivation management information to farmers are connected via a communication line. The server is equipped with a cultivation management system that feeds back the current year's grain preparation and processing data and agricultural data from the agricultural data collaboration platform to farmers, and provides cultivation management guidelines for the next year to farmers. This is a cultivation management system characterized by a built-in program.
The invention according to claim 2 is the cultivation management system according to claim 1, wherein the cultivation management program provides feedback to the farmer via the display section of the mobile terminal.
The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the server further incorporates a maintenance program that provides maintenance information for machines constituting the grain preparation line based on the grain preparation processing data. This is the cultivation management system described in 2.
The invention according to claim 4 is the cultivation management system according to claim 3, wherein the maintenance program provides the maintenance information via a display unit of the mobile terminal.
Moreover, the following may be used as another invention.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, means 1 includes: a chute arranged at an angle to allow the raw material to be inspected to flow down; an optical detection means for detecting the inspection object falling from the lower end of the chute; A grain inspection device comprising: an ejector means for sorting out the objects to be inspected based on a detection result; and a discharge hopper for separately discharging the objects to be inspected sorted by the ejector means,
The inspection object is sorted into good and defective products based on the image signal of the optical detection means, and the defective products are classified into grains damaged by pests, grains damaged by burnt rice, green immature grains, unhulled rice, milky grains, and foreign substances. A technical measure was taken to provide a calculation means for determining the quality of each grade, and a display means for displaying the quality results and selection results by the calculation means.

Means 2 is characterized in that the arithmetic means binarizes each of the R, G, and B signals obtained from the optical detection means, and performs arithmetic processing on these values by addition, subtraction, integration, or division to obtain a spectral ratio. The grain inspection apparatus according to the means 1 is characterized in that the grain inspection apparatus determines the quality by determining the spectral ratio and the R, G, or B values and characterizing the quality.

Means 3 includes a grain preparation line including the grain inspection device described in Means 1 , an agricultural data collaboration platform that aggregates agricultural data, a server that accumulates grain preparation and processing data in the grain preparation line, and a farmer. A cultivation management system in which a mobile terminal that provides cultivation management information is connected via a communication line,
The server has a built-in cultivation management program that feeds back this year's grain preparation and processing data and agricultural data from the agricultural data collaboration platform to farmers and provides them with cultivation management guidelines for the next year. It is characterized by being

Means 4 is the cultivation management system according to Means 3, wherein the grain preparation processing data is at least the quality of the inspected object determined as a defective product by the grain inspection device.

Means 5 feeds back to the server the current year's grain preparation and processing data and agricultural data from the agricultural data collaboration platform to the farmers, and provides maintenance information for the machines constituting the grain preparation line. The cultivation management system according to means 3 or 4 is characterized in that the maintenance program to be provided is incorporated.

According to means 1 , there is provided a chute arranged at an angle to allow the raw material to be inspected to flow down, an optical detection means for detecting the inspection object falling from the lower end of the chute, and a detection result based on the detection result by the optical detection means. A grain inspection device comprising: an ejector means for sorting and ejecting the objects to be inspected; and a discharge hopper for separately discharging the objects to be inspected sorted by the ejector means,
The inspection object is sorted into good and defective products based on the image signal of the optical detection means, and the defective products are classified into grains damaged by pests, grains damaged by burnt rice, green immature grains, unhulled rice, milky grains, and foreign substances. Equipped with a calculation means for determining the quality of each grade, and a display means for displaying the quality results and sorting results by the calculation means,
In addition to simply sorting the inspected items into good and defective items, we also examine the proportion of grains damaged by pests, grains damaged by burnt rice, green immature grains, unhulled rice, milky grains, and foreign substances among the defective products. It is possible to check in detail whether or not there are any grains, and it is possible to perform grain quality determination without having to take the trouble to input the grains into a grain quality discriminator.

According to means 2 , the arithmetic means binarizes each of the R, G, and B signals obtained from the optical detection means, and performs arithmetic processing on these values by addition, subtraction, integration, or division. The method uses the spectral ratio and the R, G, or B values to characterize the quality and distinguish the quality. It has become easier to distinguish between unhulled rice and between green immature grains and white milky grains.

According to means 3 , a grain preparation line including the grain inspection device of means 1 , an agricultural data collaboration platform that aggregates agricultural data, and a server that accumulates grain preparation and processing data in the grain preparation line. , a cultivation management system in which a mobile terminal that provides cultivation management information to farmers is connected via a communication line,
The server has a built-in cultivation management program that feeds back this year's grain preparation and processing data and agricultural data from the agricultural data collaboration platform to farmers and provides them with cultivation management guidelines for the next year. Therefore, the current year's quality data analyzed by grain inspection equipment can be effectively used to provide farmers with rice cultivation management guidelines for the next year (for example, the next year's timing of irrigation, fertilization, and pesticide application). Now it can be used for cultivation management.

Furthermore, according to means 4 , the grain preparation processing data is at least the quality of the inspected object determined by the grain inspection device, so that farmers can visualize and understand the current year's crop status. can be provided easily.

According to means 5 , the server feeds back the current year's grain preparation and processing data and the agricultural data from the agricultural data collaboration platform to the farmers, and the machines forming the grain preparation line. For example, if the grain preparation data is lower than normal, it can be an indicator that the machine on the grain preparation line is performing less than normal, so it will alert you. This can be used to notify farmers to make adjustments and maintenance of machinery.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a cultivation management system in which the grain inspection device of the present invention is incorporated into a grain preparation line. It is a schematic side sectional view of a grain inspection device. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of the grain inspection device. This is a display example of analysis results displayed on the screen of the display unit. This is an example of cultivation management provided to farmers displayed on the mobile terminal screen of the cultivation management system.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a cultivation management system in which the grain inspection device of the present invention is incorporated into a grain preparation line. This cultivation management system 10 assumes a medium to large-scale farm with a field area of 1 to 3 ha (ha) as the management scale of an individual farmer or a farming corporation. In FIG. 1, the cultivation management system 10 includes a grain preparation line 20, a server 30 that accumulates grain preparation and processing data on the grain preparation line, a mobile terminal 40, and a private or public institution that aggregates all agricultural data. The agricultural data collaboration platform 50 is connected via a communication line 60. The communication line 60 is configured of a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or an Internet line. This network may be wired or wireless.

(Grain preparation line)
The grain preparation line 10 is installed in a barn of an individual farmer, or in a building of a rice center or factory in a farming corporation. The grain preparation line 10 is an indoor machine (barn machinery) fixed in a building, in contrast to field machinery (for example, a combine harvester) that harvests while moving within the field. You can transport things and prepare and process them. The grain preparation line 10 includes, for example, a grain dryer (not shown) for drying grain, a cooling tank (not shown) for cooling dry paddy dried by the grain dryer, and a cooling tank (not shown) for cooling dry paddy dried by the grain dryer. A huller sorting machine 201 removes the remaining paddy and finishes it into brown rice, and the grain size (thickness (larger) A rice sorter 202 that performs sorting using a rice sorter 202; a grain inspection device 203 that inspects the grains of sized unpolished rice obtained by the rice sorter 202 by an optical method; A weighing and bagging machine 204 for weighing, bagging, and shipping brown rice is connected in one line.

The huller sorting machine 201 samples the hulled rice, transmits sensor light projected from a light emitting element to a light receiving element, and sorts it into brown rice or unhulled rice depending on the transmittance of this sensor light to the hulled rice. A shedding rate sensor 201a is provided to determine whether or not the pulp is removed. Further, the huller sorting machine 201 includes an electrical quantity measuring section 201b that measures electrical quantities (for example, current value, electric power value, electric energy, etc.) of the drive section. The properties of the paddy supplied to the hulling and sorting machine 201 can be known based on the measured values by the husking rate sensor 201a and the electrical quantity measuring section 201b, depending on whether the measured values are within the standard or not.

The rice sorting machine 202 is equipped with a sorting screen tube that sorts brown rice into regular grains and immature grains. If there is a large amount of immature grains mixed in, the commercial value will decrease or it will be an indicator of poor growth of rice that year. For example, abnormally low temperatures and extreme lack of sunlight during the rice cultivation period, or abnormally high temperatures due to intense heat every day during the rice cultivation period, cause poor growth of rice, resulting in extremely poor grains (immature grains) being contained in the paddy. In some cases, the paddy becomes sterile grains that do not bear fruit.

Therefore, the rice sorting machine 202 includes a grain size measuring device 202a that receives and weighs the sorted grains that have not passed through the sorting mesh tube, and a waste grain weigher that receives and weighs the immature grains that have passed through the sorting mesh tube. A container 202b is provided. By knowing the ratio of sorted grains to immature grains, it is possible to calculate the yield of grain grains and use it as an index to determine the growth status of rice that year.

The grain inspection device 203 separates the grain size-sorted brown rice by the rice sorter 202 into non-defective products and defective products. It is possible to examine in detail the proportion of damaged grains, immature green grains, unhulled rice, colored grains such as milky white grains, and foreign substances such as pebbles for each grade.

As shown in FIG. 2, the grain inspection device 203 includes an inspection object supply section 203a, a chute 203b, an optical sorting section 203c, and a discharge hopper 203d . The inspection object supply unit 203a includes a tank 210 and a vibration feeder 211 that supplies the inspection object to the chute 203b. The chute 203b has a predetermined width and is arranged in an inclined position below the tip side of the vibrating feeder 211, and allows the object to be inspected supplied from the vibrating feeder 211 to flow down. The optical sorting unit 203c uses a pair of optical detection devices 212a, 212b disposed before and after the falling trajectory of the object to be inspected that falls from the lower end of the chute 203b, and detects the object to be inspected based on the imaging signals of the optical detection devices 212a, 212b. The products are divided into good and defective products, and the defective products are classified into six types: colored grains caused by pests, damaged grains caused by burnt rice, blue immature grains, unhulled rice, colored grains such as milky white grains, and foreign substances. It includes a calculation means 213 for determining the quality, and an ejector device 215 for determining good products and defective products by the calculation means 213 and rejecting the defective products based on the determined determination result. Reference numeral 214 is an ejector drive circuit that outputs an exclusion signal from the calculation means 213 to the ejector device 215. The discharge hopper 20 3 d has a non-defective product discharge gutter 216 and a defective product discharge gutter 217, and uses an ejector device 215 to separate and discharge the inspected products into non-defective products and defective products whose quality has been determined and confirmed.

The weighing and bagging machine 204 places a container 204b such as a rice bag and a bag holder 204c on a fine product weighing device 204a, and opens a shutter (not shown) to discharge the grain into the container 204b, and when a predetermined weight value is reached. The shutter closes automatically and weighing and bagging are completed.

In the grain preparation line 20 described above, for example, seven types of sensors and control means shown in FIG. 1 are connected to the communication line 60.

(server)
The server 30 includes a web server that sends and receives information to and from external terminals, a file server that stores various data and functions as a database, and an application server that distributes applications that need to be installed on client computers and tablet terminals. It has general-purpose basic functions. Server 30 is connected to communication line 60.

(Mobile device)
The mobile terminal 40 is preferably a plurality of viewing tablet terminals that can be carried and viewed in the field, such as in a field or on a grain preparation line. As a substitute for the tablet terminal, a notebook type general-purpose personal computer or a smartphone may be used. Mobile terminal 40 is connected to communication line 60 .
(Agricultural data collaboration platform)
The Agricultural Data Collaboration Platform 50 provides new services that utilize data and supports farmers by organizing and providing public data on agriculture-related soil, market conditions, weather, etc., as well as various paid data from private companies. The objective is to realize strategic management decisions and is sponsored by private or public organizations.

The agricultural data collaboration platform 50 shown in FIG. 1 can utilize, for example, "WAGRI" sponsored by the National Agriculture and Food Research Institute. This platform 50 includes an agricultural database 501 that stores past yield data, market condition data, soil data, and farmland data, a meteorological database 502 that stores agricultural weather data, and a database that can be used to refer to past history. and a past history database 503. These databases 501, 502, and 503 are provided in the form of application programming interfaces (APIs), and some of the software and applications are made available to the outside world, so they cannot be developed by third parties who use these databases. It is a mechanism that allows sharing of software and functions. This platform 50 is connected to a communication line 60.

(Control circuit configuration of grain inspection device)
Next, the control circuit of the grain inspection device 203 will be described in detail. The calculation means 213 of the grain inspection device 203 distinguishes the inspected items into good and defective items, and further divides the defective items into colored grains caused by pests, damaged grains caused by burnt rice, green immature grains, unhulled rice, and milky white grains. This is used to determine the quality of colored grains such as grains and foreign substances such as pebbles.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of the grain inspection device 203. As shown in FIG. 3, the optical detection device (imaging camera) 212 is composed of a CCD line sensor, and includes an R element 220 having sensitivity to each color of R (red), G (green), and B (blue); It includes a G element 221 and a B element 222. A light reception signal from the optical detection device (imaging camera) 212 is supplied to an R element 220, a G element 221, and a B element 222, and is photoelectrically converted into an R signal, a G signal, and a B signal, respectively, and output. The R, G, and B signals are input to amplifiers 223, 224, and 225 provided in the calculation means 213, respectively, and further input to a signal processing circuit 226. The signal processing circuit 226 binarizes the input values of the R, G, and B signals, and performs signal conversion by performing arithmetic processing by addition, subtraction, integration, or division. This signal conversion is to identify the object to be inspected by characterizing the signal received by the optical detection device (imaging camera) 212, and by inputting this signal to the comparison circuit 227, the quality of the object to be inspected can be determined. , a pass/fail determination is made.

Reference numeral 228 is a delay circuit, which determines the injection timing according to the distance between the position where the object to be inspected is observed by the optical detection device (imaging camera) 212 and the removal position where defective products are removed by the ejector device 215. . A rejection signal is outputted from the comparator 227 to the ejector drive circuit 214 via the delay circuit 228. The exclusion signal determined by the ejector drive circuit 214 is output to the ejector device 215.

(Grain inspection device quality discrimination algorithm)
The signal processing circuit 226 shown in FIG. 3 calculates a spectral ratio R/G and a spectral ratio R/B from each value of R, G, and B obtained by performing binarization processing on each grain of the object to be inspected. , is calculated. Then, this calculated value is compared with the discriminant stored in the comparison circuit 227 (see, for example, FIGS. 6 to 10 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-292344), and the quality is discriminated into, for example, six types. . There are six types of quality classification: (a) grains damaged by pests (grains damaged by stink bugs) and others are classified as good quality; (b) grains colored by burnt rice and other grains are classified as good quality; (c) Blue immature grains and other grains are classified as good products, (d) milky white grains and other grains are classified as good products, (e) paddy and other grains are classified as good products, and (f) foreign substances and other grains are classified as good products. If you create a program to do this in advance, you can quickly perform the statistical processing for determining quality.

(Display section of grain inspection device)
Reference numeral 230 in FIG. 3 is a display section of the grain inspection device, which displays the quality results and sorting results after the grain inspection, and also serves as an operation section for operating the grain inspection device. FIG. 4 is a display example of the analysis results displayed on the screen 230a of the display unit 230. Fig. 4(a) shows the results of classifying the inspected items into paddy and other non-defective items. % occupancy. What is shown in FIG. 4(b) is a detailed analysis result (pie chart) of defective products obtained by aggregating the analyzes using six types of grades. In this example, 93% of the inspected items were good and 7% were defective, and 2% of the defective items were green and immature, and 1% of the remaining quality items. .

(Cultivation management system)
The server 30 of the cultivation management system 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a cultivation management program that provides cultivation management guidelines for the next year to farmers. In other words, this cultivation management program refers to the data obtained from the various preparation machines of the grain preparation line 20 mentioned above and the data obtained from the various servers of the agricultural data collaboration platform 50 mentioned above, This information can be used to provide feedback to farmers about rice cultivation conditions, which can be used for next year's cultivation management (for example, the timing of irrigation, fertilization, and pesticide spraying the following year).

FIG. 5 is an example of cultivation management provided to a farmer displayed on the screen 40a of the mobile terminal 40 of the cultivation management system 10. In FIG. 5, the field number, various data after the grain harvested at this field number is prepared on the grain preparation line 10, and data obtained from the agricultural data collaboration platform 50 are fed back to the farmer. Based on this, advice regarding next year's cultivation management is provided.

For example, in FIG. In the field No. 1, the results of grain preparation processing are acquired from various data of the grain preparation line 10 and recorded. From this record, when the proportion of waste grains in the rice sorter 202 is higher than in a normal year, and the ratio of immature grains in the grain inspection device 203 is higher than in a normal year, the basis and factors can be found from the agricultural data collaboration platform 50. You can refer to it and get it. Based on the above, we can provide farmers with cultivation management guidelines (advice) that take into consideration ``fertilization management'' and ``harvesting timing'' as countermeasures for the next year.

Similarly, No. 5 in FIG. In field No. 2, we were able to provide farmers with cultivation management guidelines (advice) for the next year, including considering "management before and after harvesting" in consideration of rain during harvest. In the field No. 3, it is possible to provide farmers with emphasis on "seed disinfection and pest control plan" as cultivation management guidelines (advice) for the next year.

In addition to such cultivation management guidelines (advice), when the hulling rate of the huller and sorter 201 is lower than the average year and the proportion of paddy in the grain inspection device 203 is higher than the average year, the mobile terminal An alarm can also be issued on the screen 40a of 40. If the shedding rate is lower than normal, the capacity of the huller sorter 201 may be lower than usual, so a warning will be issued to the farmers to urge them to adjust and maintain the huller sorter 201. It would be a good idea to notify them.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the embodiments of the invention described above are for facilitating understanding of the present invention, and do not limit the present invention. The present invention may be modified and improved without departing from its spirit, and the present invention includes equivalents thereof. In addition, it is possible to combine or omit each component described in the claims and the specification to the extent that at least part of the above-mentioned problems can be solved or at least part of the effect can be achieved. .

10 Cultivation management system 20 Grain preparation line 30 Server 40 Mobile terminal 50 Agricultural data collaboration platform 60 Communication line 201 Husker sorter 201a Peeling rate sensor 201b Electrical quantity measuring section 202 Rice sorting machine 202a Grain size measuring device 202b Waste grain measurement Container 203 Grain inspection device 203a Inspection object supply section 203b Chute 203c Optical sorting section 203d Discharge hopper 210 Tank 211 Vibration feeder 212a Optical detection device 212b Optical detection device 213 Calculation means 214 Ejector drive circuit 215 Ejector device 216 Good product discharge gutter 217 Defective product Discharge gutter 220 R element 221 G element 222 B element 223 Amplifier 224 Amplifier 225 Amplifier 226 Signal processing circuit 227 Comparison circuit 228 Delay circuit 230 Display section 204 Weighing bagging machine 204a Precision weighing machine 204b Container 204c Bag holder 501 Database 502 Database 503 database

Claims (4)

A chute arranged at an angle to allow the raw material to be inspected to flow down, an optical detection means for detecting the inspection object falling from the lower end of the chute, and an optical detection means for detecting the inspection object based on the detection result by the optical detection means. an ejector means for sorting and eliminating ; a discharge hopper for separately discharging the objects to be inspected sorted by the ejector means; , a calculation means for determining the quality of the defective product into a plurality of grades: grains damaged by pests, grains damaged by burnt rice, green immature grains, unhulled rice, milky white grains, and foreign matter; and displaying the quality results and sorting results by the calculation means. a grain preparation line comprising a grain inspection device ,
An agricultural data collaboration platform that aggregates agricultural data,
a server that stores grain preparation processing data including at least the quality results and the sorting results obtained by the calculation means of the grain inspection device in the grain preparation line;
A mobile terminal that provides cultivation management information to farmers,
A cultivation management system connected via a communication line,
The server has a cultivation management program that feeds back the current year's grain preparation and processing data and agricultural data from the agricultural data collaboration platform to farmers and provides them with cultivation management guidelines for the next year. A cultivation management system that is characterized by being built-in. The cultivation management system according to claim 1, wherein the cultivation management program provides feedback to the farmer via a display unit of the mobile terminal. 3. The cultivation management system according to claim 1, wherein the server further includes a maintenance program that provides maintenance information for machines forming the grain preparation line based on the grain preparation processing data . The cultivation management system according to claim 3, wherein the maintenance program provides the maintenance information via a display unit of the mobile terminal.

Images