JPH0427303Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Field of industrial application] The present invention also improves the handling depth of grain culms fed to the threshing section.
The present invention relates to a harvester equipped with an automatic handling depth adjustment device that adjusts the handling depth based on the detection result of the culm length.

[Conventional technology]

The automatic handling depth adjustment device of the harvester detects the length of the grain culm fed to the threshing section with a culm length sensor installed on the entrance side of the threshing section, and when this culm length sensor detects a long culm, The vertical conveying chain is tilted to the shallow handling side, and when a short culm is detected, it is tilted to the deep handling side, and the threshing process is carried out at the appropriate handling depth according to the culm length of the detected grain culm. The processing depth in the threshing section is automatically adjusted to enable the processing of grains. The culm length sensor is composed of a plurality of detection rods arranged in parallel in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of grain culms, and limit switches that operate individually when the grain culm comes into contact with these detection rods. The length of the grain culm is detected by the on/off state.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

In such conventional culm length sensors, if the operation of the detection rod is obstructed by entanglement with straw waste, for example, there is a risk that the limit switch will malfunction and erroneously detect the length of the grain culm. In such cases, there was a problem in that appropriate handling depth adjustment could not be carried out.

Therefore, it is conceivable to use an image sensor that images the grain culm fed to the threshing section as a culm length sensor, identify the grain culm from the imaging result, and calculate the culm length. By the way, when identifying an object to be imaged from the imaging results of an image sensor, the image signal from the sensor is binarized because it is easy to process the image signal and does not require a large capacity memory. Advantageously, said identification is carried out on the basis of a processed and binarized image signal.

On the other hand, harvesting machines are mainly operated outdoors due to their usage, and the image sensor installed in the harvesting machine as a culm length sensor images the grain culm under natural light. Since the amount of incident light changes greatly depending on external factors such as weather and time of day, there is a risk that the binarization process described above may be performed incorrectly, and the processing depth adjustment based on the result may be inaccurate. There was a problem with becoming.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a harvester that does not erroneously detect the length of grain culms and can always perform threshing processing at an appropriate handling depth.

[Means for solving problems]

The harvesting machine according to the present invention uses an image sensor as a grain culm sensor, and binarizes the image signal from the image sensor to reliably detect the culm length. In a harvester equipped with an automatic handling depth adjustment device that detects the culm length of grain culms being transported to the an image sensor that images the
A means for calculating the culm length of the grain culm based on an image signal from the image sensor, an illumination device for illuminating an imaging field of view of the image sensor, and a natural light shielding part including a part or all of the imaging field of view, It is characterized by comprising a light-shielding cover formed on a part of the grain culm conveyance path.

[Effect]

That is, during the conveyance route from the reaping section to the threshing section,
The light-shielding cover forms a light-shielding part, and the grain culm cut by the reaping part is captured under illumination of the illumination device by the image sensor whose imaging field of view is partially or entirely included in the light-shielding part. An image is taken, the culm length of the grain culm is calculated from the imaging result, and the handling depth is automatically adjusted so that the threshing process can be performed at an appropriate handling depth for the calculated culm length.

〔Example〕

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below based on drawings showing embodiments thereof. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of the harvester according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the drive mechanism of the vertical conveyance chain.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body section equipped with a threshing section 2, and a reaping section 5 composed of a cutting blade 3, a grain culm lifting device 4, etc. is attached to the front side of the main body section 1 so as to be movable up and down. ing. On the rear side of the reaping section 5, there is a vertical conveyance chain 1 for conveying the harvested grain culms rearward and upward.
0 is provided with its terminal end facing the starting end of the grain culm pincher transfer device 11 extending along the handling opening of the threshing section 2.

The grain culm harvested by the reaping section 5 is then conveyed to the front part of the threshing section 2 by the vertical conveyance chain 10 via a lower conveyance device (not shown), and then transferred to the grain culm pinching transfer device 11. In the device 11, the grain is introduced into the handling chamber 2a from the grain introduction port 2c formed on the front surface of the threshing section 2 with the longitudinal direction extending in the left-right direction of the machine body.
While being transported backwards with the tip side inserted into the handling chamber 2a, the handling cylinder 2b installed inside the handling chamber 2a
The grain is now being threshed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the vertical conveyance chain 10 has its left (right side in FIG. 2) central portion rotatably supported on the upper end of a column 12 erected at the front of the front body 1. The bracket 10a protruding from the lower right side of the bracket 10a has a drive arm 14 that moves forward and backward according to the rotation of the drive motor 13.
The tip is rotatably supported.

When the drive motor 13 rotates forward (or reversely) and the drive arm 14 advances (or retracts), the vertical conveyance chain 10 pivots around the pivot point of the support column 12 and rotates in the opposite direction when viewed from the front. It is designed to be tilted clockwise (or clockwise).

Then, when the vertical conveyance chain 10 is tilted counterclockwise (or clockwise), the grain stalks being conveyed by the chain 10 are transferred to the grain stalk pinching transfer device 11. As a result, the main side of the plant (or the tip side) becomes more pinched, and the length of insertion into the handling chamber 2a becomes longer (or shorter), resulting in the grain culm being deeply handled (or shallowly handled). The grain will be threshed.

A light shielding cover 6 in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped shell with one side fully open is attached to the front surface of the threshing section 2 with its opening facing downward, that is, toward the grain culm being transported by the vertical transport chain 10.

The light shielding cover 6 has a width dimension that is longer than the longitudinal dimension of the grain culm introduction port 2c of the threshing section 2, and when attached to the front surface of the threshing section 2 as described above, the light shielding cover 6 has a width dimension that is longer than the length direction dimension of the grain culm introduction port 2c of the threshing section 2. Surrounding the inner grain culm from above,
There is a light shielding part B (see Figure 3) in a part of the transportation route of the grain culm.
A culm length sensor 60 and a light projector 61 are arranged side by side on the upper surface of the inside thereof.

FIG. 3 is a schematic plan view of the front part of the harvester, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the handling depth control system. The culm length sensor 60 using an image sensor includes a part of the grain culm conveyed by the vertical conveyance chain 10,
In order to capture an image within the imaging field of view A parallel to the conveying direction of the grain culm through the lower opening of the light shielding cover 6, the light shielding cover 6 is attached to the inner upper surface thereof facing downward. The whole
They are arranged in parallel to the culm length sensor 60 in order to uniformly illuminate with white light of a constant intensity. As shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 3, the imaging field of view A is included in the light shielding part B shown by the broken line in FIG. It is designed not to be exposed to light.

The culm length sensor 60 includes, for example, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) 62 having n×m pixels and an optical lens 63 for forming an image of an object on the photosensitive surface of the CCD 62. The output signal is given to the image signal processing unit 7 which includes an A/D converter 70, video memories 71a and 71b, and an arithmetic control unit 72.

The CCD 62 accumulates charges corresponding to the intensity and irradiation time of light that passes through the optical lens 63 and irradiates each pixel, and receives clock pulses from the calculation control section 72 at predetermined time intervals. Each time an image signal is given, an image signal having a level corresponding to the charge in each pixel is sequentially outputted to the A/D converter 70 of the image signal processing section 7 with the grain culm transport direction in the imaging field of view A set as the main scanning direction.

The A/D converter 70 converts the image signal from the CCD 62 into bright and dark binarized values based on a predetermined threshold value, and alternately applies it to the video memory 71a or 71b, and assigns "1" representing a bright area and a dark area to the video memory 71a or 71b. It is stored as binary image data consisting of "0" representing "0".

A calculation control unit 72 using a microcomputer reads image data stored in the video memory 71a or 71b, performs calculations described later from this data, and sets a level according to the culm length of the grain culm within the imaging field of view A. A control signal is output to the handling depth control section 8. The drive motor 13 for tilting the vertical conveyance chain 10 is connected to the output side of the handling depth control section 8 so as to be capable of forward and reverse rotation via a drive circuit (not shown). When the level of the input signal from 72 is above a predetermined value, in other words, when the culm length of the grain culm fed to the threshing section 2 is long, the drive motor 13 is operated to reverse the direction.
When the vertical conveyance chain 10 is tilted to the shallow handling side and the level of the input signal is below another predetermined value that is smaller than the predetermined value, in other words, when the culm length of the grain culm is short, The drive motor 13 is operated to rotate normally, the vertical conveyance chain 10 is tilted toward the deep handling side, and the handling depth is automatically adjusted to an appropriate value.

Now, the operation of the harvester according to the present invention configured as above will be explained. While operating the reaping part 5, the grain culm planted on the field surface is harvested by the cutting blade 3 by traveling on the field surface, and then the grain culm is sequentially transferred to the front part of the threshing part 2 by the vertical conveyance chain 10. Transport to.

The grain culms are then delivered to the grain culm pinching transfer device 11, where the grain ends are inserted into the handling chamber 2a and transferred backwards.
The threshing process is carried out in the handling cylinder 2b inside.

The floodlight 61 is turned on and off in response to the engagement and disengagement of a reaping clutch (not shown) that transmits power to the reaping section 5, and when the reaping section 5 is operating, that is, during reaping work in the harvester. It is always lit when the Similarly, the culm length sensor 60 is configured to start its operation at the same time as the reaping section 5 starts its operation, and during the reaping operation, the grain culm within the imaging field of view A is monitored at predetermined time intervals as described above. An image is taken together with a part of the aircraft body, and an image signal obtained from the imaging result is output to the image signal processing section 7.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the imaging results of the culm length sensor 60. The hatched area in FIG. 5 where the grain culm is present is imaged brighter than other background areas, so the level of the image signal corresponding to the grain culm is the same as that corresponding to the background area. It is large compared to the level.

On the other hand, as described above, most of the natural light entering the imaging field of view A is blocked by the light-shielding cover 6, so when imaging the field of view A with the culm length sensor 60, the irradiation is applied onto each pixel of the CCD 62. Most of the light emitted by the projector 61 is the reflected light from the grain culm or background part of the illumination light emitted by the floodlight 61, and even if the amount of natural light fluctuates greatly depending on external factors such as weather and time, The intensity of light irradiated onto each pixel of the CCD 62 hardly changes, and the image signal output from the culm length sensor 60 is not affected by the external factors.

Therefore, the level of the threshold value serving as a reference for binarization in the A/D converter 70 is determined by the level of the output signal of the culm length sensor 60 corresponding to the grain culm part within the imaging field of view A, and the level of the output signal of the culm length sensor 60 corresponding to the background part. If the image signal output from the culm length sensor 60 is set in advance to be at a level intermediate between the level of the output signal and the level of the output signal, the image signal output from the culm length sensor 60 will be detected by the A/D converter 70 so that the part where the grain culm is present is a bright part. The background portion is reliably binarized into “1” representing the dark portion and “0” representing the dark portion, respectively, and stored in the video memory 71a or 71b.

Now, the arithmetic control section 72 uses the video memory 71a.
Alternatively, the culm length is calculated from the binary image data stored in 71b, for example, as follows.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the control contents of the calculation control section 72. The arithmetic control unit 72 reads the binary image data stored in one of the video memories 71a (or 71b), and calculates the grain in the imaging field of view A by counting the number of "1" data in this image data. Find the area S of the part where the culm exists. Next, this value of S is divided by the number of pixels m of the grain culm transport method to calculate the average culm length l of the grain culms existing within the imaging field of view A. After outputting a control signal of a level corresponding to the magnitude of the average value l to the processing depth control section 8, the other video memory 71
The next binary image data is read from 71a or 71a, and the same calculation is repeated.

The handling depth control unit 8 operates to rotate the drive motor 13 in the forward or reverse direction as described above based on the control signal corresponding to the average culm length l inputted from the arithmetic control unit 72, so that the average culm length value When l is large, the vertical conveyance chain 10 is moved to the shallow handling side, and when the average culm length l is small, the vertical conveyance chain 1 is moved to the shallow handling side.
The grain culms conveyed by the chain 10 are threshed in the threshing section 2 at an appropriate handling depth according to the length of the culm.

Note that the light-shielding cover 6 of this embodiment has an imaging field of view A.
However, the light shielding cover 6 may be of any type as long as it can form the light shielding part B that includes at least the boundary between the grain culm and the background in the imaging field of view A.

Further, the shape of the light-shielding cover 6 is not limited to that shown in this embodiment, and may be, for example, flat, hemispherical, etc., and it goes without saying that the mounting position is not limited to the position shown in this embodiment. .

Furthermore, the mounting positions of the culm length sensor 60 and the floodlight 61 are not limited to the positions shown in this embodiment. The culm length sensor 60 may be provided oppositely to the sensor 60 so that the light from the floodlight 61 is directly incident on the culm length sensor 60 . However, in that case, the light from the floodlight 61 is blocked by the grain culm and cannot reach the grain culm sensor 60, so the imaging result of the culm length sensor 60 is
Contrary to the case of this embodiment, the part where the grain culm is present becomes the dark part, and the other parts become the bright part, and the arithmetic control unit 7
When determining the grain culm area S in step 2, the number of "0" image data in the binary image data is counted.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the projector 61 emits white light, but the projector 61 emits monochromatic light.
For example, if a floodlight 61 that emits yellow light close to the color of the grain culm is used, the amount of reflected light from the background will be reduced, the contrast between the grain culm and the background will be emphasized, and subsequent images will be The processing of the signal becomes even more accurate.

〔effect〕

As detailed above, in the harvesting machine according to the present invention, since an image sensor is used as the culm length sensor of the automatic handling depth adjustment device, the culm length can be detected without touching the grain culm, and the culm length can be detected without touching the grain culm. There is no risk of erroneously detecting the culm length due to entanglement with foreign objects.

Furthermore, when capturing an image of a grain culm with an image sensor, a light-shielding portion that blocks natural light is formed in a part of the transportation route of the grain culm, and the grain culm within the light-shielding portion is imaged under illumination. When the image signal from the image sensor is subjected to binarization processing, this processing is performed reliably, the accuracy of calculating the culm length based on the image signal from the sensor is improved, and the handling depth can be adjusted reliably. It has a great effect.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of the harvester according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the vertical conveyance chain drive mechanism, and FIG. 3 is the harvester. A schematic plan view of the front part, Fig. 4 is a block diagram of the handling depth control system, Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the imaging results of the culm length sensor, and Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing the control contents of the arithmetic control section. be. 2... Threshing section, 5... Reaping section, 6... Light shielding cover, 7... Image signal processing section, 8... Handling depth control section, 10... Vertical conveyance chain, 60... Culm length sensor, 61... ...Light emitter, 72...Arithmetic control section, A...
...Imaging field of view, B...shading area.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim for Utility Model Registration] A harvester equipped with an automatic handling depth adjustment device that detects the culm length of the grain culm being conveyed from the reaping section to the threshing section and adjusts the handling depth based on the detection result, an image sensor that images the grain culm on the conveyance route from the reaping section to the threshing section; means for calculating the culm length of the grain culm based on the image signal from the image sensor; and lighting that illuminates the imaging field of the image sensor. A harvester comprising: a device; and a light-shielding cover that forms a natural light-shielding portion that includes part or all of the imaging field of view in a part of the grain culm transport route.