JPH01171402A - Automatic steering device of transplanter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent horizontal divergence of transplanter in teaching operation and damage of planted seedlings during rounding, by positioning a transplanting part at a nonoperating place, traveling a machine body by manually operated steering without carrying out transfer operation, specifying the traveling position in the traveling and memorizing the traveling position as information related to traveling position. CONSTITUTION:In teaching traveling, existence of a transplanting part in a nonoperating position set at a raising side is detected by a nonoperation detector 18 and after the confirmation of the transplanting part, an operator manually operates a steering wheel. A traveling machine body is run, the progress direction and traveling distance of the traveling machine body in teaching traveling are memorized at fixed intervals in each rounding. Calculation is carried out based on the memory and traveling course is set. The operator drops the transplanting part on the field, a traveling state selecting lever is rotated and operated, an automatic traveling switch 34 is set to ON and an order of automatic steering operation is sent to a steering control part 30.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an automatic steering device for a transplanter that automatically steers the transplanter by following the rows of seedlings that have already been planted as a guide.

[Prior art]

A rice transplanting machine, which is a transplanting machine, consists of a traveling machine body and a planting section connected to the rear of the machine body. The plants are planted in the field at predetermined intervals by the movement of the planting claws.

By the way, if the spacing between seedlings is too narrow, there is a risk of poor growth of the seedlings, and conversely, if the spacing between seedlings is too wide, the yield per unit area will be low. Therefore, it is desirable to plant seedlings at appropriate intervals. In the rice transplanter, the planting claws operate 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 regardless of the traveling speed. The above-mentioned appropriate value is maintained, but the planting distance in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the traveling aircraft (hereinafter referred to as row spacing)
In order to maintain the above-mentioned appropriate value, it is necessary to plant the seedlings while steering the traveling machine along the rows of seedlings that have already been planted. However, when planting with a rice transplanter, there are various monitoring items such as the remaining amount of seedlings loaded in the planting section, the operating state of the planting section, and the operating state of the engine. There is a problem in that reliably performing the above-mentioned steering at the same time as monitoring matters requires a great deal of labor and effort on the operator.

Therefore, in order to reduce the labor burden on the worker and to carry out the planting work while maintaining the row spacing at the appropriate value, an automatic machine that automatically steers the traveling machine along the rows of the bacterial strains has been developed. There are rice transplanters equipped with a steering device.

As an example of this automatic steering device, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-1271
There is one disclosed in No. 13. In the current planting method, infrared light is irradiated onto the rows of already planted seedlings adjacent to the rows, and the reflected light from the already planted seedlings is received by multiple photoreceptors arranged side by side in the left and right direction on the side of the traveling machine. A seedling row detector is installed to
When the reflected light is received by the photoreceptor of the seedling row detector, the reflected light is received by the photoreceptor located directly above the row among these photoreceptors, so that a predetermined The device maintains the relative position of the traveling machine relative to the row of already planted seedlings at an appropriate position by automatically steering the vehicle so that light is always received by the photoreceptor, and is positioned on the left side (or right side) of the predetermined photoreceptor. ), it is determined that the relative position of the traveling aircraft has shifted to the right (or left), and in order to eliminate this shift, it moves to the left (or right). It is configured to perform a predetermined amount of steering.

Various other automatic steering devices for rice transplanters have been proposed, but all of them have different means for detecting planted seedlings, but the automatic steering means has a structure that is similar to this. There is.

In such a conventional automatic steering device of a rice transplanter, if a seedling that has already been planted becomes missing for some reason and does not exist,
Alternatively, if there is an obstacle in front of the rice transplanter and the already planted seedlings in the field are interrupted, the seedling row detector cannot detect the already planted seedlings, so automatic steering is performed using only the seedling row detector. In this case, normal copying steering control is no longer performed, and as a result, there is a problem in that the seedlings deviate significantly from the rows of already planted seedlings, or the automatic steering is interrupted.

As a solution to this problem, the
There is an invention disclosed in Publication No. 06. The unmanned working vehicle according to the present invention manually travels around the outer periphery of the work site and stores data from the direction detector and travel distance detector installed in the machine, thereby controlling the round trip to the work site. The robot is taught to calculate and store the driving course distance and direction for each stroke, and the automatic steering based on this teaching and the automatic steering based on the copying are used together for the work from the next stroke onwards. In other words, automatic turning is performed when the travel course distance based on the teachings matches the actual travel distance, and steering during the normal stroke is performed by automatic steering based on the tracing, and when the boundary cannot be detected, automatic steering based on the teachings is performed. Steering is performed.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in the invention, since the teaching work is performed simultaneously with the ground work, if this is applied to a transplanting machine, there is a risk that the machine body may trample and damage the already planted seedlings when turning. In addition, during ground work, an external force is applied to the aircraft in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel, which may cause the aircraft to shift laterally, so if ground work is performed during teaching, there is a risk that accurate teaching may not be performed.

The present invention has been developed in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to automatically steer a transplanter that performs transplanting work in a field by following the rows of already planted seedlings without damaging the already planted seedlings, and also to prevent lateral slippage during teaching work. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic steering device for a transplant machine that automatically steers based on accurate teaching without causing problems such as the following.

[Means for solving problems]

An automatic steering device for a transplanting machine according to the present invention is an automatic steering device for a transplanting machine in which a planting part is attached to a traveling machine body, and the transplanting machine performs transplanting work while automatically steering the inside of the field by teaching playback control. an azimuth detector, a traversal distance detector that detects a travel distance, a non-work detector that detects that the planting section is in a non-work position, and a direction of travel of the transplanter detected by the azimuth detector. Means for specifying a running position in the field from a direction and a running distance in the traveling direction by the running distance detector, and storing the running position when the non-working detector detects the non-working position. It is characterized by comprising the following.

[Effect]

In the present invention, the planting part is located in a non-working position,
Without transplanting, the machine is manually steered to run as appropriate, and the running position at this time is identified sequentially, and this identification result is stored as information regarding the running position, so there is no chance of damage to the already planted seedlings during automatic steering. Also, no lateral deviation occurs during teaching.

〔Example〕

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

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

In the figure, 1 is a traveling body supported by front wheels 14 and rear wheels 15, and 6 is a planting part attached to a three-point link mechanism 62 provided at the rear of the traveling body 1. The entire planting section 6 is raised and lowered with respect to the traveling body 1 by raising and lowering.

In the traveling body 1, the power generated by the power unit 3 (including the engine, transmission, etc.) mounted near the front end is transmitted to the rear wheels 15.
The front wheels 14 are steered by the rotational steering of the handle 2, and the traveling direction of the traveling body 1 is controlled (steering control m). Note that the power generated in the power unit 3 is transmitted to a seedling planting device 67, which will be described later, and which is installed in the planting unit 6.
etc. has also been communicated.

The steering operation of the front wheels 14 can of course be done manually using the handle 2 as described above, or by using the solenoid Sr as described later.
, SR may be electrically controlled to supply and discharge pressure oil to the hydraulic cylinder 27 (see FIG. 4).

The planting section 6 includes a seedling planting device 67 attached to a three-point link mechanism 62 at the rear of the traveling body 1, and a seedling planting device 6.
It is composed of three sets of floats 61, 61, and 61 that are attached to the lower side of the seedling platform 60 and the seedling planting device 67 that are attached to the upper side of the seedling table 7 and the seedling planting device 67 so as to be swingable in the vertical direction.

The seedling mounting table 60 has a seedling mounting section 69°6 divided into six parts in the left and right direction.
9... is provided, and each seedling tray 69.69.
When a seedling is placed in ..., the seedling is automatically placed in the planting section 6.
In a side view, it is formed in an arc shape from the rear lower end side to the upper front side of the planting ms so as to be sent to the seedling planting device 67 at the rear end. Then, the seedlings on each seedling tray 69 are sequentially placed on the seedling tray 69.
9 is then slid downward, and the seedlings located at the lowest end are planted in the field by the aforementioned seedling planting device 67.

Now, at the lower part of the front of the traveling aircraft 1, there are
In FIG. 2, only the left side is shown), seedling row detectors 101 and 1Or are respectively attached via rod-shaped attachment arms 11. The seedling row detectors 101 and 10r both have their detection areas slightly forward of the front end of the traveling body 1, and the distance between the left and right detection rings is that of the seedling planting device 67 of the planting section 6 attached to the rear of the traveling body 1. None can be changed depending on the planting width of the seedlings.

The seedling row detector 101 and 1Or each have an outer case and two optical sensors 101 each having a built-in light emitting element and a light receiving element.
a, 10lb, 10ra, and 10rb, the light emitted from the light emitting element is projected onto the test object, the reflected light from the test object is captured by the light receiving element, and the The two optical sensors 101a and 10l of the left seedling row detector 10f output a voltage signal.
b.

The optical sensor 10ffia is placed on the side of the traveling aircraft 1, and is installed in the outer case at appropriate intervals so that the respective light irradiation areas are overlapped by a predetermined width. The steering of the traveling body 1 is controlled so that the outermost side of the row of seedlings planted in the previous step is always detected within the predetermined width region. The same applies to the seedling row detector 10r on the right side.

In addition, the three-point link mechanism 62 has a non-working detector 18 (see FIG. 4) that detects that the planting section 6 is in a non-working position.
is installed.

Furthermore, on 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 stand 60 of the planting section 6, there is a direction detector 8°8 for detecting the direction of movement of the rice transplanter. They are fixed with the direction shifted by 2. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the azimuth detector 8. The azimuth detector 8 includes a pair of mutually orthogonal detection windings 81 and 82 wound around the toroidal core 80 from the outside. When using a geomagnetic sensor made of
Utilizing the fact that the voltage induced in the detection windings 81 and 82 is maximum when the geomagnetic directions are perpendicular to each other,
This circuit is configured as described in Sensor Technology Vol. 5, No. 4 (April 1985 issue). Detection winding 81
．． The frequency component of the output voltage of 82 is the frequency component of the toroidal core 80.
Since the frequency of the excitation current is twice the frequency of the excitation current, each output voltage is synchronously detected using the double frequency oscillated by the oscillator as a reference, and is taken out as an output through separate integration circuits and amplifiers. It is. The output voltages of the detection windings 81 and 82 taken out in this way are given to the steering control section 30, which will be described later, and the steering control section 30 calculates the earth's magnetic field by the arctangent of the ratio of both outputs. Using the orientation as an absolute reference, the orientation of the installation direction of the orientation detector 8, in other words, the traveling direction of the rice transplanter is calculated.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the control system of the device of the present invention, shown together with a plan view of the steering mechanism for the front wheels 14.14.

In the figure, reference numeral 20 denotes a front axle that is fixed to the lower bracket of the traveling body 1 with its longitudinal direction being the left-right direction. At both left and right ends of the front axle 20, there are knuckles that pivotally support the left and right front wheels 14 and 14, respectively. Arm 22.
22 is a pivot support for rotation in a horizontal plane about each separate king pin 21, 21. Knuckle arm 22.22
The front end portions of the two are connected via separate link members 25 and 25 to the front portion of a rotating plate 24 that rotates in a horizontal plane around a pivot shaft 23 that stands on the top of the front axle 20. The steering hydraulic cylinder 27 is attached so that the tip of its piston rod is locked to the tip of an arm 26 that projects leftward from the middle of the rotary plate 24.

Therefore, when the hydraulic cylinder 27 moves forward (or retreats), the rotating plate 24 rotates clockwise (or counterclockwise) in FIG. 25. Left and right knuckle arms 22 through 25
．． 22, the front wheels 14.14 are steered to the right (or left) with their respective knuckle arms 22.22.

Further, a steering angle detector 17 using a potentiometer is provided at the position of the king pin 21, and the steering angle detector 17 detects the rotation amount of the king pin 21, that is, the front wheel 14.1.
According to the steering angle of No. 4, a positive voltage is output when the vehicle is being steered to the right when traveling straight, and a negative voltage is output when the vehicle is being steered to the left.

Further, at the positions of the left and right knuckle arms 22, 22, mileage detectors 16 using reed switches! .

16r is installed, and by sensing the magnetic material attached to the front wheel 14.14, the rotation speed of the front wheel 14.14 is detected, the detected left and right rotation speeds are averaged, and the mileage is calculated from the average rotation speed. Calculate.

Pressure oil generated by a hydraulic pump 29 is supplied to the hydraulic cylinder 27 via a 4-point/3-position electromagnetic directional switching valve V, and the solenoid Sl of the electromagnetic directional switching valve ■ is energized. If so, the pressure oil from the hydraulic pump 27 is fed to the oil chamber on the retracting side 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.
Conversely, when the solenoid Sr of the electromagnetic directional control valve V is energized, the front wheels 14°14 are steered to the right. Furthermore, solenoid S! and solenoid Sr are both demagnetized,
When the solenoid directional control valve ■ is in its neutral position, the front wheel 14
．． 14 is maintained at the current steering angle.

On the other hand, 30 is the direction detector 8. The seedling row detector 101
, 1Or and the travel distance detectors 161 and 16r as described below, and the solenoid S! of the electromagnetic directional control valve ■ is activated. Alternatively, it is a steering control section that steers the traveling aircraft 1 by energizing the solenoid Sr.

The steering control section 30 is connected to a power source 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 the driver seated in the driver's seat 4 instructs the steering control section 30 to start its operation is connected to the input port a+ of the steering control section 30. When the switch 32 is turned on, the input port at changes to a high level.

In addition, the input ports 1"ax and 3 of the steering control unit 30 are connected to the base end of the driving state selection lever 9, which is arranged at a position that can be operated by the driver seated in the driver's seat 4. , a teaching running switch 33 and an automatic steering switch 34 are connected to each other, each using a microswitch arranged to be turned on according to the locking position of the lever 9. 33 are both turned on, input port aX turns to high level, and when automatic switch 32 and automatic steering switch 34 are turned on, input port a3 turns to high level. The driving state selection lever 9 has three locking positions: a locking position where the teaching driving switch 33 is turned on, a locking position where the automatic steering switch 34 is turned on, and a locking 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, thereby controlling the steering control unit 30 in two ways as described below. It is possible to select the operation contents.

Input capo of steering control unit 30) a4+as+a&+a'
1 includes optical sensors 10fa for seedling row detectors 10f and 10r.

104! b, 10ra, and 10rb outputs are given, respectively.

Further, the steering angle detector 17 is provided to the input port all, and the steering angle target value calculated from this output and the detection results of the seedling row detector 101 and 1Or is used to control the traveling aircraft.
The steering is controlled to follow the row of seedlings.

The output of the non-work detector 18 is given to the input capo (aq), and whether teaching is possible or not is determined based on the output.

At. Tall is given the average output voltage of the output voltages from the two detection windings 81.81.82.82 of the direction detectors 8, 8, respectively, and the steering control unit 30 uses an arithmetic expression stored in advance. Based on this, the traveling direction of the rice transplanter is calculated from the arctangent of the ratio between these output voltages.

In addition, all! The mileage detector 1 is
Pulse signals from 51 and 16r are input, and the steering control unit 30 detects the left and right rotational speeds within a certain period of time,
The average rotation speed Pa is determined, and the travel distance is calculated based on the average rotation speed Pa.

Further, the outputs of the redirection switch 35 and the redirection end switch 36 are provided to the input port "13+a14."

The output ports b and b2 of the steering control unit 30 are
It is connected to the solenoid Sr and solenoid Sl of the electromagnetic directional control valve (2) through separate excitation circuits (not shown), respectively, and the solenoid Sr (or The solenoid SL) is energized, the hydraulic cylinder 27 is moved forward (or retracted), and the front wheels 14.degree. 14 are steered rightward (or leftward) by the aforementioned operation of the steering mechanism.

Now, the operation of the apparatus of the present invention constructed as above will be explained. Figure 5 is a schematic plan view of a field explaining the travel route of the rice transplanter, where the dashed line indicates taught travel by manual steering, the dashed line shows automatic steering based on teaching, and the dashed two dotted line shows automatic steering by tracing. are shown respectively. During the teaching run, the non-working detector 1 detects that the planting section 6 is in the non-working position provided on the rising side.
8, and after confirming it, the driver manually operates the handle 2 to plant from the base point at the bottom left of Fig. 5 along the outer periphery from one end of the field.
The traveling body 1 is caused to travel to a first stroke start position spaced apart in the lateral direction of the figure, and the traveling direction and travel distance of the traveling body 1 during this teaching traveling are stored at regular intervals for each turn. Based on this memory, calculations to be described later are performed and a travel route is set.

Next, the first stage of rice planting work is carried out along the travel route set based on the above teachings to the turning point at the top of the field in Figure 5.After turning, the rows of seedlings planted in the first stage are Automatic steering follows the outermost field to the other end of the field.

When the automatic steering by copying is completed, the automatic steering is performed while planting rice along the taught traveling route around the outer circumference of the field to the base point.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart at the start of steering control,
When the driver performs this automatic steering, the driver first turns on the automatic switch 32 to instruct the steering control section 30 to start operation, and then rotates the driving state selection lever 9 to turn it on. The vehicle is locked at the locking position for selecting the taught travel, and the taught travel is performed with the taught travel switch 33 turned on. After the teaching driving is completed, the driver rotates the driving state selection lever 9 and locks it in the locking position where the automatic steering switch 34 is turned on. Start steering.

When the key switch 31 is turned on and connected to the power supply, the steering control section 30 first checks the on/off state of the automatic switch 32 based on the level of the big boat a+, as shown in the flow chart of FIG.

Then, the automatic switch 32 is turned off, and the input capo)a
+ is at a low level, the steering control unit 30 resets its memory, registers, all flags, etc. until the automatic switch 32 is turned on, and the automatic switch 32 is turned on and the input When the port a+ is at a high level, the on/off states of the teaching travel switch 33 and the automatic steering switch 34 are checked based on the level of the input port (a)at and the input port a3, and the teaching travel switch 3 is checked.
3 is turned on and the input port az is at a high level, the automatic steering switch 34 is turned on and the input port ai is at a high level, the automatic steering is performed according to the taught driving subroutine described later. The teaching run switch 3 operates according to the direction subroutine.
3 and the automatic steering switch 34 are both in the OFF state, the system waits until either of them is turned on.

As mentioned above, the automatic steering switch 34 and the taught running switch 33 are arranged so as to be turned on at different locking positions of the - running state selection lever 9, respectively.
Both of these are not turned on, and the driver is required to turn on/off the automatic switch 32 and drive state selection lever 9.
By the rotational operation of , it is possible to instruct the steering control section 30 to operate in accordance with the standby state, the taught driving subroutine, and the automatic steering subroutine, respectively.

The above-mentioned teaching run starts from the lower left base position in FIG. 5, causes the traveling body 1 to run along the outer periphery of the field, and ends when it returns to the first stroke start position. The form of this running is not limited to a quadrilateral shape 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 around corners. Furthermore, even when traveling straight, it is not necessary to maintain a strictly straight traveling state.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a teaching driving subroutine showing the operation contents of the steering control section 30 during such teaching driving. When the above-mentioned conditions are satisfied and the transition is made to the teaching driving subroutine, the steering control unit 30 counts up the counter i that counts the number of samples, and the running distance detector 161
, 16r detects the traveling distance from the starting position, and the predetermined route i! As described above, the traveling direction Di of the aircraft 1 is calculated from the average voltage of the output voltages of the two detection coils 81 and 82 of the direction detectors 8 and 8 for every 1 ILa. Furthermore, the steering angle Si from the steering angle detector 17 is also calculated. Transfer these data. 8 and 9 show a direction detection subroutine for detecting a direction and a steering angle detection subroutine for detecting a steering angle, and show a detection method when detecting a direction and a steering angle in the blue routine taught above. There is. Since there are small fluctuations in the traveling direction and the steering angle, the average of a predetermined number of times Na is calculated and used as the azimuth and steering angle data.

When the driver manually steers the traveling aircraft 1 to the turning position, he turns on the turning switch 35. When the turning switch 35 is turned on, the relationship between the steering angle Si and the traveling direction Di is determined and stored for each turning, and the steering angle data is used 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 is first stored.
Calculate by adding 1 to 1. Note that during the first turn, N is zero, so N becomes one. Next, the average direction up to turning is calculated and the distance before turning LIN is detected. Then, the previous distance after turning Lz, 4-1 is divided from the distance before turning LIN to obtain the running distance.

Next, it is determined whether the number of turns N is 2 or more. If the number of turns N is 1, the driver starts turning immediately, and if it is 2 or more, the current average direction DH and the previous average direction DH - 1, the central angle θ8-3 of the previous turning N-1 is determined, and the radius of curvature RN-1 of the previous turning N-1 is determined from this central angle θN-1 and the previous turning distance PH-1. This radius of curvature RN-1 and central angle θ
By N-1, the inflection point (vertex of the polygon) coordinates of the previous rotation (X seek, and then begin turning.

When the turning is completed, the driver turns on the turning end switch 36 to instruct the steering control section 30 to end the turning. After the turning is completed, the steering control unit 30 detects the turning distance L2N, and detects the turning distance L! , by dividing the pre-turning distance LIN to obtain the turning distance PM.
get. Then, the number of turns N is replaced with N, and stored, and the average direction DH1 turning distance PM, the distance before turning LIN, the distance after turning, and the 2N% inflection point (x,).

yN) respectively. This operation is repeated until the first stroke start position is reached and the teaching run is completed.

The teaching driving ends when the teaching driving switch 33 is turned off by the driver's rotation operation of the driving state selection lever 9.

After performing the teaching run in this manner, the driver lowers the planting section 6 to the field, transmits power to the planting section 6, and prepares for rice planting work. Next, the driving state selection lever 9 is rotated to turn on the automatic driving switch 34 to instruct the steering control section 30 to perform an automatic steering operation.

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

First, in the driving route setting subroutine, the coordinates (
The coordinates are rotated with XN, )FN) set at the travel start position as the origin, and the first rotation direction set as the positive direction of the y-axis. As a result, the coordinates of the first inflection point become (0, y+'). Also, the coordinates of the Nth inflection point are (X'Ml)''H). Next, find the maximum value in the X direction, and calculate the maximum value X'Mi
Divide lK by planting width d to find the quotient m. The quotient m is the maximum number of strokes, and the travel route of each stroke is moved parallel to the y-axis by the number of quotient m from its initial value (x+1.yo) to the travel start position (Xo).

yo), the planting will move in the positive direction of the X-axis by 1.5 times the width d,
The plantings are set apart by a width d in the X-axis stopping direction, and each intersection with the outer circumference of the traveling route (X,.

Y,,Y,) (see Figure 5). and the intersection y
The distance j27 of each stroke is determined from the coordinates, and the distance 7!
The required turning distance α is subtracted from 7 to find the turning distance l In. A travel route is set based on the travel route thus determined and the outer circumferential travel route during taught travel.

Once the travel route is set, the distance m is counted, and the first
During a stroke, that is, when m=1, the rice planting work is performed by automatic steering based on the data of the first stroke of the travel route, and when the turning distance Nl+ is reached, the rice-planting operation is automatically turned. After the second step, the seedling row detector 11! .

The rice planting work is carried out automatically following the outermost rows of seedlings planted in the first step of 10R.

This automatic steering by tracing is performed by the seedling row detectors 101 and 10.
Two optical sensors 10fa and 10j provided in r
! b.

The irradiation areas of 10ra and 10rb on the field are overlapped by half of each irradiation area, so that the outermost side of the row of seedlings that will become copy kites is always detected in the overlapped irradiation area. When the row of seedlings is on the left side of the traveling body 1, the outermost row of the seedlings is the optical sensor 10.
j! When detected on the a (or 10 l b) side, the output boat bl (or bz) of the steering control unit 30 is output, and the traveling aircraft 1 moves to the right (or to the left).

Also, at this time, if the outermost part of the row of seedlings becomes undetectable due to reasons such as missing plants, and the automatic steering becomes impossible,
The current azimuth and steering angle are input from each detector, and the detected azimuth is compared with the taught direction DM of the M-th step, so that they substantially match and the steering angle St becomes close to zero. is automatically steered.

The automatic steering based on this teaching route is continued until the outermost part of the row of seedlings can be detected.

In this embodiment, the direction detector 8.8 is fixed to the planting part 6, which has a small deflection angle with respect to the traveling body 1 and has little movement, and to the body 1, which has a quick response to control, and is used to determine the direction. The direction is shifted by % of the minimum bone resolution, and the average output voltage is calculated to take the direction. However, when memorizing, the direction is taken using the direction detector 8 installed in the planting area 6, which has little movement. When used for detecting steering control, the direction detector 8 provided in the traveling aircraft 1 with good responsiveness may be used.

Further, in this embodiment, the distance detectors 161 and 16r
Although a reed switch installed on the front wheels 2 and 2 knuckle arms was used as a reed switch, the present invention is not limited to this, and a proximity switch or other non-contact switch may also be used. using
The speed may be determined by the Doppler effect and the distance may be determined from the speed.

〔effect〕

As detailed above, in the device of the present invention, teaching travel is performed by detecting the rising state of the planting part, so there is no occurrence of lateral slipping during teaching work, and there is no risk of damaging already planted seedlings when turning. Not at all.

Furthermore, even if the planted seedlings cannot be detected during automatic steering that follows the pattern of the already planted seedlings, the automatic steering will continue along the travel route set based on the teaching memory, so the automatic steering will not be interrupted. It produces the same effect without having to do it.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 1 is a left side view of a riding rice transplanter equipped with the device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof, and Fig. 3 shows the configuration of the direction detector. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the device of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of a field explaining the traveling route, and Nos.
The figure is a flowchart showing the operation details of the apparatus of the present invention. ■... Traveling body 6... Planting section 8, 8... Direction detector 9... Traveling state detection lever 101, 10
r... Seedling row detector 161. , 16r... Travel distance detector 17... Steering angle detector 18... Non-working detector 30... Steering control section Fig. 6 Fig. 11 Fig. 12

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic steering device for a transplanter in which a planting part is attached to a traveling machine body and performs transplanting work while automatically steering within a field by teaching playback control, comprising: an azimuth detector; a travel distance detector that detects travel distance; a non-work detector that detects that the planting section is in a non-work position; an azimuth in the traveling direction of the transplanter detected by the orientation detector; and means for specifying a running position in the field from a distance traveled in the traveling direction by a distance detector, and storing the running position when the non-working detector detects the non-working position. An automatic steering device for a transplant machine featuring: