JPH026483B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic cutting height adjustment device for a reaping device of a mobile agricultural machine such as a combine harvester or a binder. The height control device determines the target mowing height surface, and the mowing height adjustment device allows the reaping device to follow the target mowing height surface, allowing the mowing operation to proceed while maintaining the appropriate mowing height from the ground. The purpose is to make it possible.

BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, a device has been put into practical use that uses a contact sensor to detect irregularities on the ground immediately in front of a mobile agricultural machine and adjust the cutting height of a cutting device.

However, contact type sensors not only have many contact errors and are easily damaged, but also can only detect the ground immediately in front of the mobile agricultural machine, and cannot obtain much detection information. Therefore, it is difficult to adjust the cutting height in consideration of the situation in front of the mobile agricultural machine, which not only increases the frequency of control, but also increases the dispersion of detected information and reduces the accuracy of cutting height adjustment, which reduces the durability of the cutting device. This causes a decrease in

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention uses a non-contact type sensor, and mounts this non-contact type distance sensor diagonally forward and downward at a predetermined ground clearance on the upper front side of a mobile agricultural machine, and also swivels it from side to side. By doing so, the unevenness of the ground in the mown field diagonally in front of the mobile agricultural machine is detected at multiple detection points over a predetermined width, and the information on the multiple detections detected as the mobile agricultural machine advances is collected. The stored information regarding these wide range detection points is updated while being stored in the height control device, and based on this information, the mowing height target plane is determined.
The mowing device is made to follow the target mowing height plane via the mowing height adjusting device.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

Figure 1 shows a combine harvester C as a mobile agricultural machine.
The control platform 2 is on the front right side, the preprocessing device 3 is on the left side,
A threshing device 4 is arranged at the rear. Each part is driven by an engine (not shown), and the machine body 1 moves forward with a pair of left and right crawlers 5R and 5L, and the grain culms 13 to be planted in the field are separated by the weeder 6 of the pretreatment device 3. The grain is raised by a raising device 7, harvested by a reaping device 8, conveyed rearward by conveying devices 9, 10, 11, and 12 to a horizontal position, and then husked by a threshing device 4.

Figures 2 and 3 show the reaping device 8 of combine harvester C.
This figure shows the structure and function of the automatic cutting height adjustment device D.

That is, when reaping the planted grain culm 13 with the reaping device 8, the ground detection sensor 15 attached to the pulling device 7 of the combine harvester C moves a predetermined width B in the direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the combine harvester C. The unevenness of the ground of the mown field 30 in the detection area 16 is detected, and based on this detection signal, the mowing height control device M calculates the mowing height target surface S, and also controls the mowing height adjustment device D.
The reaping device 8 is configured to follow the target cutting height surface S to perform reaping and harvesting.

The cutting height control device M is composed of a microcomputer, which inputs the detection signal of the ground detection sensor 15 to the input interface 17 and outputs the signal to the central processing unit 1.
8, processed in accordance with the stored information in the storage device 19, and outputted from the output interface 20 to switch the oil passage switching valve 21 of the cutting height adjustment device D.

The cutting height adjusting device D is constructed as follows.

That is, the rear end of the pre-processing device 3 of the combine C is supported by the body 1 so as to be able to swing up and down about the pivot shaft 23, and the front end thereof is supported by the lifting hydraulic cylinder 2.
The height of the reaping device 8 from the ground is adjusted by adjusting the piston rod 22a of the lifting hydraulic cylinder 22 to move forward or backward. That is, the detection information regarding the unevenness of the ground detected by the ground detection sensor 15 is transmitted to the cutting height control device M.
Based on this information and pre-stored information, the cutting height target surface S that the cutting blades of the reaping device 8 should follow is set, and the reaping device 8 is set above the cutting height target surface S. or if it is located below,
The reaping device 8 is operated by switching the oil passage switching valve 21 to the left or right via the cutting height control device M to move the piston rod 22a of the lifting cylinder 22 in or out as appropriate.
is made to follow the cutting height target surface S.

When setting the target cutting height surface S, the cutting device 8
Considering the positional relationship between the grass divider 6 and the grass divider 6, the setting is made so that the tip of the grass divider 6 does not collide with a convex part of the ground.

Here, the ground detection sensor 15 is constituted by an ultrasonic projection/reception type distance measuring device among non-contact type distance sensors.

This distance measuring device is attached to the right-end pulling device 7 at a predetermined height above the ground so as to face obliquely forward and downward.

That is, the distance sensor 15 detects the combiner C at the depression angle a.
As shown in FIG. 6, by rotating a pinion 26 via a worm gear 25 with a pulse motor 24, the distance sensor 15 opens left and right at a predetermined rotational angular velocity. It is designed to be able to swing within the range of angle b.

By swinging this distance sensor 15 back and forth once from right to left within the detection area 16, the distance to a total of i (i=6 in this embodiment) detection points 27 is detected in one detection, The detected information is input to an input interface 17.
Then, in the control device M, information regarding the ground height of each detection point 27 is calculated from the above detection information and stored in the storage device 19.

Here, in order to perform appropriate cutting height adjustment based on information from the detection area 16 as wide as possible, the cutting height target surface S is determined as follows.

That is, each time the combine C advances a predetermined distance or a predetermined time elapses, it is automatically detected, and n times of detection information is stored in a memory block of the storage device 19 (the outline of which is shown in FIG. 5). The stored information is sequentially updated by erasing the oldest detection information and adding new detection information.

That is, it is assumed that the detection information in the range of symbol m in FIG. 3 is always stored.

By arithmetic processing these stored information via a pre-stored program, a cutting height target surface S to be followed by the cutting device 8 is set. Further, the height of the stump 14 in the detection area 16 is also obtained and used as a reference for setting the cutting height target plane S.

In the case of this embodiment, the relative position of the distance sensor 15 with respect to the machine body 1 varies according to the height adjustment of the reaping device 8, so the above variation is taken into consideration when calculating the mowing height target surface S. Fix it.

However, if the distance sensor 15 is attached to the front side of the control platform 2 so that the distance sensor 15 is fixed to the aircraft body 1, the above modification is not necessary.

The above embodiment can be modified as follows.

(a) In the above embodiment, an ultrasonic projection/reception type distance measuring device is used as the distance sensor 15, but a configuration may be adopted in which a light wave receiving type distance measuring device is used to measure the distance. In short, the distance sensor 15 may be a non-contact type distance sensor.

(b) As the cutting height control device M, a dedicated electronic control circuit combined with a logic circuit or the like may be used.

(c) The automatic mowing height adjusting device of the present invention can be immediately applied to mobile agricultural machinery equipped with a reaping device such as a binder, in addition to the combine harvester C.

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

(1) As a ground detection sensor, a non-contact type distance sensor is installed diagonally forward and downward at a predetermined ground height on the upper front side of the mobile agricultural machine, and the non-contact type ground detection sensor detects the ground of the mowed field in front of the mobile agricultural machine. Since the structure detects irregularities on the ground, there are fewer detection errors and detection errors, and since it is possible to detect many detection points within a wide detection area, highly accurate detection information can be obtained.The ground detection sensor has excellent durability and can be used for a long time. Highly accurate automatic cutting height adjustment is possible.

(2) While sequentially detecting multiple detection points in a detection area of a predetermined width on the mowed field in front of the mobile agricultural machine using a ground detection sensor that swings from side to side, these detection information is stored in the control device. At the same time, this stored information is updated sequentially, and the cutting height target surface is set based on the detection information of the detection points in a wide range in front of the combine, so that extremely local irregularities at the detection points can be avoided. Since the influence is diluted, cutting height can be adjusted smoothly and without loss.

(3) In order to carry out the present invention, a non-contact type ground detection sensor is attached in the shape of an angle of depression, and a control device with a simple structure is provided, so that it can be carried out easily and at low cost. Moreover, since the control device can be used as a steering device for mobile agricultural machinery, it can be implemented at low cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a combine harvester, FIGS. 2 and 3 are a partial schematic side view and a partial schematic plan view of the combine harvester in the reaping state, and FIG. 4 is an automatic harvester. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the height adjusting device, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a memory block of stored information, and FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view of the drive mechanism of the ground detection sensor. C...Mobile agricultural machine, D...Mowing height adjustment device, M...
... Cutting height control device, S... Cutting height target surface, 8...
Reaping device, 13... Grain culm, 15... Ground detection sensor, 27... Detection point, 30... Already mown field.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. The mowing height adjustment device D of the mowing device 8 of the mobile agricultural machine is configured so that the mowing height can be controlled by the mowing height control device M, and the ground detection sensor 15 detects the mowed land 30 of the field. Based on the detection of irregularities on the ground, a mowing height control device M determines a mowing height target surface S, and a mowing height adjustment device D is controlled to cause the mowing device 8 to follow the mowing height target surface S. The ground detection sensor 15 is composed of a non-contact type distance sensor, and this distance sensor is installed diagonally forward and downward at a predetermined ground height on the front upper part of the mobile agricultural machine. A plurality of detection points 27 within a detection area 16 of a predetermined width in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the mobile agricultural machine are configured to be sequentially detected by swinging from side to side, and multiple detections are performed according to the progress of the mobile agricultural machine. The cutting height control device M is configured to store the detection information detected by the cutting height control device M, and to update the stored detection information by adding the latest detection information while erasing the oldest detection information. An automatic mowing height adjustment device for a mowing device of a mobile agricultural machine, characterized in that the mowing height target plane S is determined from detected information. 2. The automatic cutting height adjustment device according to claim 1, wherein the mobile agricultural machine is a combine harvester. 3. The automatic cutting height adjustment device according to claim 1, wherein the mobile agricultural machine is a binder. 4. The automatic mowing height adjustment device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the distance sensor 15 is an ultrasonic projection/reception type distance measuring device. 5. The automatic mowing height adjustment device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the distance sensor 15 is a light wave receiving distance measuring device. 6. In the automatic cutting height adjustment device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, the cutting height control device M is composed of a microcomputer. 7. In the automatic cutting height adjustment device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, the cutting height control device M is composed of a dedicated electronic control circuit. 8. In the automatic cutting height adjusting device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, the detection signal of the distance sensor 15 is adjusted to the cutting height every time the mobile agricultural machine advances a predetermined distance. A mowing height control device M configured to provide input to a control device M.