JPH0126649B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is applicable to, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 57-140021 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
The present invention relates to a completely new fruit-harvesting robot hand that is installed in a fruit-harvesting device, such as the one already proposed by the applicant in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-31614.

In this type of robot hand, in addition to the finger members for capturing fruit, it is necessary to provide a cutter for cutting the tenon of the captured fruit, but the structure of the cutter itself, the structure of the drive mechanism, When designing the location of the hand, there were various demands such as the need to prevent the overall size and weight of the hand from increasing, and to ensure that the tenon of the fruit could be cut safely and effectively. Its design is extremely difficult.

An object of the present invention is to provide a fruit harvesting robot hand equipped with a cutter that can meet such special requirements.

In order to achieve the above object, the robot hand for fruit harvesting according to the present invention has a cutter installed in each bendable finger so as to protrude from the tip of the finger when the finger is bent. It has characteristics.

Due to this characteristic configuration, various effects as described below are exhibited. That is, (a) a structure in which the cutter is installed inside the bendable fingers for capturing and grasping the fruit is adopted;
No special space is required for arranging the cutter, which makes it possible to make the entire hand more compact. The cutter is configured to automatically protrude from the tip of the finger only when it is necessary to cut, so when the hand is moved with the finger extended (open), the cutter is inserted into the finger. It is extremely safe as there is no risk of damaging branches or fruits or injuring people when stored, and it also allows for efficient tenon cutting when necessary; Since the structure uses the bending motion itself as the driving force for protruding and operating the cutter, no special device is required to drive the cutter, which is extremely advantageous in terms of making the entire hand more compact and lightweight. It was made into something.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the fruit harvesting device of this embodiment has a bendable arm 1 attached to a movable main body (not shown), and a fruit harvesting robot hand 2 attached to the tip of this arm 1. The hand 2 is connected with a fruit conveying shooter 3 for conveying fruits to a storage section (not shown).

This robot hand 2 will be described in detail based on FIG. , the entire finger is held rotatably around the hand axis X. Reference numeral 6 designates fingers for capturing fruit provided around the fruit introduction port 5 of the base end portion 4. A contact sensor 7 is provided on the outside of the tip of the finger 6, and sends a signal to the control device to control the arm 1 when capturing fruit. A photoelectric sensor 8 detects whether the fruit has entered the inside of the hand 2 to a position where the tenon can be cut.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the structure of each finger 6 is such that a tenon cutting cutter 9 protrudes from the tip when the finger 6 is bent, and 10... are hollow. They are links and are connected in series so as to be able to swing freely to each other by outer rotational shafts 11 to form the outer shape of the fingers 6. 12 is a rubber body fixed to each link 10 inside the finger 6. The cutter 9 is made of bendable slender steel, and has double-edged blades at its tip. 13 is a wire for bending the finger, the tip of which is fixed to a pin 14 inside the link 10 at the distal end, and passed through the internal hollow part of each link 10 to the link 10 at the proximal end.
and is connected to a drive device (not shown). 15 is a roller pin provided within each link 10 for sliding the wire 10.

The fruit harvesting robot hand 2 is constructed as described above, and its control is performed as follows. That is, the robot hand 2 is first moved toward the position of the fruit detected by the fruit position detection means (not shown), and at this time, the robot hand 2 is moved toward the position of the fruit detected by the fruit position detection means (not shown). Therefore, the position of the hand 2 is corrected and the fruit is introduced into the central gap formed by the fingers 6. When the fruit has entered sufficiently, the photoelectric sensor 8 detects the bottom of the fruit, and at this point the wire 13 is pulled by a drive device (not shown) to bend the finger 6 and capture the fruit. Next, as the hand 2 rotates around the hand axis X, the cutter 9 protruding from the tip of the finger 6 cuts the tenon and picks the fruit. The picked fruit is at the proximal end 4
It passes through the inside of the computer and is sent to a storage section (not shown) by the shooter 3. When the fruit has been picked, the wire 13 is loosened and the fingers 6 are erected by the spring force of the cutter 9 to move on to picking the next fruit.

FIG. 4 shows a finger structure of another embodiment, in which the outer shape of the finger 6 has a spring structure and is bent.

In other embodiments of the hand, the number of fingers is not limited to three, but a larger number of fingers may be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the robot hand for fruit harvesting according to the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the robot hand, Fig. 2 is a side view of the robot hand in an upright state, and Fig. 3 is a side view of the robot hand.
The figure is a side view of the finger in a flexed state, and Figure 4 is the second
FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line, and FIG. 5 is a side view of a finger of another embodiment. 6...finger, 9...cutter.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A robot hand for fruit harvesting, characterized in that a cutter 9 is installed in a bendable finger 6 so as to protrude from the tip of the finger 6 in a bent state. . 2. The fruit harvesting robot hand according to claim 1, wherein the fingers 6 have a chain structure. 3. The fruit harvesting robot hand according to claim 1, wherein the fingers 6 have a spring structure.