JPH0324003Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] "Industrial Application Field" This invention relates to a detection device for automatically detecting plant defects in seedlings, for use in automatic seedling transplanters for rice, sugar cane, and other agricultural products.

``Conventional technology'' There are various types of automatic seedling planting machines for agricultural products.
Generally, it has a multi-row planting structure.

Such a seedling transplanter is capable of planting multiple rows by traveling in one direction, and is highly efficient and convenient. However, it may cause defects in the plants, and it may take a lot of effort to compensate for the defects.

Plant defects often occur when the supplied seedlings become clogged with hoppers or throwers, and there have been cases where only one row has been left unplanted and it was later discovered that hundreds of plants were missing.

In addition, in large-sized riding seedling transplanters, in addition to the driver, there are two people on board who monitor the seedlings for defects.For example, when planting 6 rows, the left side One observer was monitoring the 3rd row, and another person was monitoring the 3rd row on the right side, and discovered any plant defects.

``Problems that the invention aims to solve'' As mentioned above, conventional automatic seedling transplanters can sometimes cause plant defects, which takes a lot of time to compensate for, and the ones with a supervisor riding along are not suitable for planting plants. Although this prevents damage, the number of workers increases.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks.

``Means for solving the problem'' This idea is based on a light-receiving section that detects and responds to green wavelength light from seedlings by receiving reflected light from seedlings planted at regular intervals in the field. An automatic seedling transplanter that includes an output signal that outputs a pulse-like signal corresponding to the planting interval of the light receiving section, and a detection operation section that detects the lack of pulses in response to the output signal of the light receiving section and responds as a lack of planting. This paper proposes a detection device.

Just like rice and sugarcane seedlings are green, seedlings have unique colors. The color of these seedlings is often more clearly distinguishable than the color of fields, and by using a light-receiving unit that is sensitive to the wavelength of light that indicates the color of the seedlings, it is possible to determine the presence or absence of seedlings planted in a rice field or field. I can detect it. Seedlings to be planted in the field are planted at regular intervals, and especially in automatic transplanters, the transplanters plant at regular intervals, so the planted seedlings are at regular intervals, and if there are no seedlings in a predetermined position. Since the reflected light from the rice field or field surface enters the light receiving unit, the light receiving unit, which had been receiving the seedling color at regular intervals, no longer responds to the light, and from this, it detects the defective areas at regular intervals and detects the occurrence of plant loss. Can be detected.

As a detection response unit for the occurrence of plant loss, for example, the output signal (including the no-output signal) of the light receiving unit
By providing a sound generating means or an optical display means that operates based on the above output signal, or by providing a means for stopping the automatic seedling planting machine in response to the above output signal, the defective part can be confirmed and the seedlings can be separated separately. All you have to do is plant it.

"Example" Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows an automatic seedling planting machine 2 that is towed by a tractor 1.
The automatic seedling planting machine 2 is detachably connected to the connecting part 3.

This automatic seedling planting machine 2 is for planting six rows of seedlings A such as sugarcane in a field, and is provided with six planting sections 2a to 2f arranged in a row in the horizontal direction. In addition, each of the planting parts 2a to 2f has a known configuration including a seedling stand, a planting tool, and the like.

Furthermore, light receiving devices 4a to 4f are provided facing downward at the rear of each of the seedling parts 2a to 2f. These light receiving devices 4a to 4f are installed so as to be located directly above each seedling planting row, and each has a cylindrical hood 5 and a photodiode 6 provided inside the hood 5, as shown in FIG. We are prepared.

The photodiode 6 is a color discrimination semiconductor element that recognizes and responds to green wavelength light having a maximum light color at a wavelength of about 550 (nm), and receives the green wavelength light reflected from the seedling A and photoelectrically converts it. Convert.

A color discrimination semiconductor element is a silicon photodiode array (four photodiodes) with an interference filter integrally formed thereon, and is known to have spectral sensitivity characteristics as shown in FIG. 4.

This color discrimination semiconductor element can determine the XY chromaticity coordinates through simple circuit processing, and is said to be capable of distinguishing dozens of colors or more.

In addition, the characteristic curve shown by the solid line in FIG. 4 is the spectral sensitivity characteristic of the above-mentioned color discrimination semiconductor element, the characteristic curve shown by the broken line is the characteristic based on the CIE3 stimulus value (three color stimulus value), and the symbol Z indicates the spectral sensitivity characteristic of the color discrimination semiconductor element. , Y is green,
X indicates the red light distribution.

The photodiode 6 of this embodiment is circuit-processed so that the color discrimination semiconductor element identifies and responds to the green wavelength, and the photodiode 6 is configured to identify and output the green wavelength light from the light reflected from the seedling A. It is configured. Therefore, each of the light receiving devices 4a to 4f provided in each planting section generates an output signal in response to each passing over the seedling immediately after planting.

Further, a detection response unit (not shown) is connected to the light receiving devices 4a to 4f, and is configured to immediately generate a warning buzzer sound when the output signal of each light receiving device is abnormal due to a lack of a pulse train. It is becoming.

Since the seedlings A are generally planted at regular intervals, the output signals of the light receiving devices 4a to 4f are generated as a pulse train. Therefore, if a plant defect occurs, the pulse will be partially absent. The detection/response section detects such a partial pulse omission as a missing portion and operates a buzzer.

The automatic seedling planting machine 2 described above plants 6 seedlings A as it travels.
Seedlings E planted in rows, and seedlings A planted in each row
are planted at regular intervals in the direction of travel.

The light receiving devices 4a to 4f work to detect the seedling A immediately after it is planted. That is, the light receiving devices 4a to 4f pass directly above the seedlings A of each row planted by the running of the automatic seedling transplanter 2, and at this time, they are sensitive to the light reflected by the seedlings A.

The light receiving devices 4a to 4f receive the reflected light from the field surface, but as described above, they are sensitive to green wavelength light, so they detect the presence of the seedling A in response to the green wavelength light reflected by the seedling A. do.

Since the seedlings A planted on each row are spaced at regular intervals, the output signals of the light receiving devices 4a to 4f become pulse-like signals corresponding to the distance between the planted seedlings, and this signal is sent to the detection response section. As long as the output signal is sent as a pulse train at regular intervals, the detection response section does not operate the buzzer.

On the other hand, when seedlings are not planted in any of the rows, that is, when a plant defect occurs, there is no reflected light of the green wavelength from the plant defect, so any one of the light receiving devices 4a to 4f outputs an output signal. does not occur. In other words, there is a lack of pulse-like signals at regular intervals, which causes the detection and response section to output an output and operate the buzzer.

In this way, the occurrence of plant loss can be immediately known by the warning of the buzzer, and prompt measures can be taken.

Next, FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a phototransistor 7 is used in each of the light receiving devices 4a to 4f.
The spectral sensitivity characteristic of photo transistor 7 is 700
The piece value is shown in the wavelength (nm), that is, in the red region, but because the range of the value is wide, 550 in the green region
It is also sensitive to wavelengths of (nm). Therefore,
By providing a spectral filter 8 in the light receiving path, it can be configured to identify green wavelength light. As the spectral filter 8, an interference filter having a spectral transmittance as shown in FIG. 6 may be used. The condensing lens 9 provided in the light receiving path is useful for increasing the light receiving sensitivity.
It is provided as necessary.

In addition, numeral 10 in FIG. 5 is a comparator;
11 is a detection response section, and 12 is a buzzer.

The operation of this embodiment is no different from that of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, and the same effects can be obtained.

The present invention can be implemented in the following manner other than the above embodiments.

(1) A condensing lens may be provided in the light receiving path of the photodiode 6 shown in Fig. 3, and if high precision is not expected, this special photodiode 6 made of a color discrimination semiconductor element can be replaced with a general photodiode 6. It can be replaced by a photodiode or the like.
However, it is necessary to provide a spectral filter.

(2) The detection response unit that receives pulsed signals from the light receiving devices 4a to 4f operates by determining the presence or absence of a pulse, that is, a pulse interval longer than a predetermined value. There is a possibility that the automatic seedling planting machine 2 may malfunction due to changes in the running speed. This is because the above-mentioned pulsed signal does not become equally spaced pulses.

Therefore, the detection response unit may operate the buzzer when the value of the ratio between the pulse width and the pulse interval of the pulsed signal does not have a predetermined relationship.

In order to configure this, a circuit that shapes the waveform of a pulsed signal, a circuit that compares the pulse width and the pulse interval, and outputs the result when the comparison result is not within a predetermined interval, is used to convert the cutout part into a pulse train. It can be detected as a missing part.

Note that the detection response section includes the light receiving devices 4a to 4.
It is sufficient to have a configuration that detects the absence of a pulse train from the output signal as a pulse train of f, determines that it is not normal, and generates a warning output, and it is sufficient to configure means other than the above using known circuits. It can be used.

(3) In the above embodiment, the green seedling A was explained, but when the seedling is of another color, the color identification circuit of the photodiode 6 is processed according to the color, and the spectral filter of the photo transistor 7 is 8 may be formed.

(4) The means for warning of plant shortage is not limited to a buzzer, but may also be a lamp display, or means such as stopping the automatic seedling transplanter based on the output of the detection/response section.

(5) In addition to the embodiments described above, the present invention can be effectively applied to various automatic seedling transplanters such as an automatic seedling transplanter towed by the rear of a tractor or a rice transplanter.

"Effect" As mentioned above, in this invention, the light receiving device senses the color of the seedlings planted at regular intervals, photoelectrically converts it, and outputs a pulse train signal corresponding to the seedling planting interval, which is detected by the detection actuator. This system is configured to detect the presence or absence of planted seedlings based on the presence or absence of pulse train missing parts, and to warn of this as the occurrence of plant defects. As such, there is no need for a person to monitor the vegetation, and the work can be carried out efficiently by a single driver.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a side view of the automatic seedling transplanter connected to a tractor, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the tractor and automatic seedling transplanter, and FIG. 3 is the automatic seedling transplanter connected to the tractor. 4 is a diagram showing the spectral sensitivity characteristics of a known color discrimination semiconductor element, and FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention using a photo transistor. , FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the spectral transmittance of the spectral filter. 2... Automatic seedling transplanter, 2a to 2f... Planting section, 4
a to 4f... Light receiving device, 6... Photo diode, 7... Photo transistor, 11... Detection response unit, 12... Buzzer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A light-receiving section that receives reflected light from seedlings planted at regular intervals in the field, mainly identifies and senses the wavelength light of the seedling color, and photoelectrically converts it into a pulse signal corresponding to the planting interval, and from this light-receiving section. A plant defect detection device for an automatic seedling transplanter is provided with a detection actuator that detects and responds to a pulse missing portion of an output signal that is a pulse train corresponding to a planting interval.