JPH0491719A - Working machine for fruit tree - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a working machine for fruit trees with a high operating efficiency without causing omission of operation by rocking a base part to a basic position when the rocking angle of the base part in the fore-and-aft direction of a car body at an operating position is larger than the set angle and then reoperating the operating part. CONSTITUTION:An operating part 4 is provided at the tip of a base part 3 rockable horizontally to a mobile car body (V) and a detecting sensor (S1) for detecting the distance of the operating part 4 from a fruit tree is further installed. The car body is stopped for each travel through a prescribed distance in a state of the base part 3 at a basic position where the direction thereof is in agreement with the fore-and-aft direction of the car body. The base part 3 is rocked to an operating position so that the distance between the fruit tree and the operating part 4 may be the set distance and the operating part 4 is then operated. When the rocking angle of the base part 3 in the fore-and-aft direction of the car body at the operating position is larger than the set angle, the base part 3 is rocked from the operating position to the basic position and the operating part 4 is then reoperated.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a working part at the tip of a base part that is horizontally swingable with respect to a traveling vehicle body, and detects the distance of the working part to a fruit tree. A detection sensor is provided, and the vehicle body is stopped every time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance with the base portion in the basic position corresponding to the direction or the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body, and the detection sensor A control means for swinging the base part to a working position where the distance between the fruit tree and the working part is a set distance based on information on the above, and operating the working part at the working position is provided. Regarding work equipment.

[Conventional technology]

The fruit tree working machine as described above is used to save labor in work such as fruit harvesting in orchards and the like.

For example, work such as fruit harvesting is performed in the following steps.

As shown in FIG. 3, the vehicle body is caused to travel on a travel line (L) parallel to a row of fruit trees (F), and stopped every time it travels a predetermined distance. In the figure (PI), (R2).

(R3) or the stopping position of the vehicle body, (R,), (R2),
(R3) indicates the basic position of the base portion at each stop position, and (Q, ), (Q2), and (Q3) similarly indicate the working position. In other words, the stop position (PL), (R2),
At (R3), stop the vehicle and remove the working part and fruit tree (
Working position (Q,), (Q2) that is not too far or too far away from F).

The base section is swung so that (Q3) is achieved, and the work is then carried out. By the way, when the vehicle is traveling, the base section is swung to the basic position so as not to come into contact with the working section or the fruit tree (F).

In the past, operations such as fruit harvesting were performed only when the base was in the working position.

[Invention or problem to be solved]

With the above-mentioned conventional technology, there is a risk that the work may be omitted, such as failure to harvest fruits.

To explain further with reference to FIG. 3, the working range that can be covered by the working section is considered to be approximately constant. Therefore, basically, if the coverage range of the working section is the same as the predetermined distance, no work will be missed. However, for example, when the traveling vehicle body (~1) is stopped in order (p, ), (R2), (p, ,), the working positions are (Q, ), (Q,
), (Q3). Here, when the swing angle (α) changes from large to small, the gap between (Q2) and (Q3) becomes large and may exceed the coverage range.

In other words, work may be missed.

To solve this problem, it may be possible to reduce the predetermined distance when the swing angle is large.

However, in this case, the number of times the base portion must be oscillated during work over a certain distance increases, which may lead to a decrease in work efficiency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and provide a fruit tree working machine that does not cause omissions in work and has high work efficiency.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve this object, the characteristic configuration of the fruit tree working machine according to the present invention is such that when the swing angle of the base portion in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body at the working position is larger than a set angle, the control means After the base portion is swung from the base portion to the basic position, the working portion is operated again.

[For production]

In Fig. 3, when the traveling vehicle body is stopped at (R2), the swing angle (α) is large, so it is necessary to operate the working part not only at the working position (Q2) but also at the basic position (R2). Become. Therefore, even if the gap between (Q2) and (Q3) is large, it can be supplemented by working in (R2).

Furthermore, since there is no need to reduce the predetermined distance, it is possible to suppress an increase in the number of swings of the base portion.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Therefore, it is possible to obtain a highly reliable fruit tree working machine that suppresses a decrease in work efficiency and has little risk of missing work.

〔Example〕

Embodiments in which the present invention is applied to a fruit harvesting machine will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in Fig. 5, a boom (2) is attached to a traveling vehicle body (V) equipped with a pair of left and right wheels (1) at the front and rear so that it can be driven up and down, and a base is attached to the tip of the boom (2). An auxiliary boom (3) as a section is attached to be able to swing freely in the horizontal direction, and a working manipulator (4) as a working section is attached to the tip of the auxiliary boom (3).

In the figure, (5) is a hydraulic cylinder for raising and lowering the boom, and (6) is a hydraulic cylinder for raising and lowering the boom.
) is a hydraulic cylinder for swinging the auxiliary boom.

The working manipulator (4) consists of a multi-jointed telescoping arm (8) and a working node (7) for fruit harvesting attached to the tip of the telescoping arm (8).

The telescoping arm (8) is rotated around the vertical axis (Y) by the electric motor (9a), and is rotated by the electric motor (9a).
9b) to swing around the horizontal axis (X), and further to be extended and contracted by an electric motor (9C).

In the figure, (S3) is a lifting sensor that detects the lifting angle of the boom (2), and (S4) is a swinging sensor that detects the swinging angle (α) of the auxiliary boom (3).

As shown in Fig. 4, the working hand (7) has a vacuum pad (10) at its tip for suctioning the fruit to be worked with, and a suction port of the vacuum pad (10). (10a) A catcher case (12) for covering the fruit adsorbed to the catcher case (10a), and a delivery cutter that cuts the handle of the fruit taken into the catcher case (12) while holding it in the vertical direction. (13) is provided.

And work manipulator (4) (7) Fruit tree (F
A proximity sensor (S, ) is provided as a detection sensor for detecting the distance to ). Further, (S2) in the figure is an image sensor.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4, the trapping part case (12)
Retire the hunt to the rear side and move the
10) suction port (10a) or the trapping part case (12)
The work hunt (7) is in a state of protruding further forward than the
) is located at the approach start position as a preset initial position, and facing the direction in which the fruit to be harvested is located, the image sensor (S2) performs image processing and captures the captured image information. The ab-coach direction as the guiding direction of the working hand (7) is determined based on the image-processed information.

After determining the approach direction, use the work hand (7).
), each of the electric motors (9a), (9b),
(9c), and the proximity sensor (S1
) or as the fruit is sensed, the vacuum pad (
10) is actuated to attract the fruit to be harvested, the catching part case (12) is made to protrude, and after taking the fruit into its inside, the handle is cut and the fruit is harvested.

However, if there are multiple fruits within the field of view of the image sensor (S2), which fruit should be approached first is determined based on the brightness information of the image captured by the image sensor (S2). I'm going to let it decide automatically.

To explain, by image processing the captured image information, a specific color area corresponding to the color of the fruit, a highlight area whose brightness is greater than a set value within that specific color area, and the center of gravity of that highlight area are determined. and seek.

Then, the approach order is set in order of the size of the highlight area. The brightness of image information is inversely proportional to the distance, and the closer the image information is, the brighter it becomes. Therefore, the size of the highlight area becomes larger as the image information is located closer to the object. In other words, the fruit that is located closer to the operator's hand (7) and is easier to harvest is approached first.

Next, a control configuration for harvesting fruit from a plurality of parallel fruit trees will be described.

As illustrated in FIG.
1) The image sensor (S2), the lifting sensor (S3), and the rocking sensor (S4) are each connected. Based on the input information of each sensor, the running of the vehicle body (V), the raising and lowering of the boom (2), etc.
Swinging of the auxiliary boom (3) and work manipulator (4)
). In the figure, (I5)
(16) is the hydraulic cylinder for lifting (1).
5), the control valve (17) is the swinging hydraulic cylinder (
Control valve (I8) for 6) is a suction pump.

In other words, by using the control device (H), the subsurface means (100)
or configured.

Next, the operation of the control device (H) will be explained based on the flowchart 1 shown in FIG. 2 (0, (o)).

When starting the control, initial settings are first performed. That is, the boom (2) is moved to the lower limit position, and the auxiliary boom (3) is moved to the basic position. Here, the basic position refers to a position where the direction of the auxiliary boom (3) coincides with the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body.

Next, based on the information from the proximity sensor (S1), the auxiliary boom (3) is horizontally swung to a working position where the distance between the fruit tree and the working manipulator (4) is a set distance. and,
The swing angle of the work manipulator (4) is memorized. Incidentally, when swinging the auxiliary boom (3), the working hand (7) is controlled so that its tip always points toward the outside of the vehicle body and maintains a right angle to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body. Further, if the distance between the fruit tree and the working manipulator (4) does not reach the set distance even when the auxiliary boom (3) is turned, the auxiliary boom (3) is turned to the maximum turning angle (for example, 8o0).

When the working position is reached, the electric motor (9a) moves the vertical axis (
Y) Harvesting the fruit is performed by operating the work manipulator (4) while scanning the area at a predetermined angle at a time.

This operation is repeated until scanning around the vertical axis (Y) is completed.

To explain the operation of the manipulator (4),
As shown in Figure 2 (b), first, the electric motor (9b)
The elevation angle (θ
) from -10' to 20', 10
A total of 4 images are captured for each 0. From that imaging information, the approach order is determined based on brightness as described above,
The working hunt (7) is made to approach the fruit with the highest rank and the harvesting operation is performed. Repeat these actions until no fruit is detected on the screen.

After the proximity sensor (S1) is activated when the working hand (7) approaches the fruit, the vacuum installed in the suction pump (18) is activated while the working hand (7) is moved forward by a set distance. If the pressure sensor does not operate, it is determined that the harvest has failed, and the next fruit is harvested.

In addition, since 4 screens are imaged in succession and the imaging range overlaps, is it possible that the same fruit is captured on multiple screens?If you consider that the fruit is on a straight line based on the position on the screen. If the straight lines on different screens intersect with each other, it is determined that they are the same fruit, and the one with lower brightness is deleted to avoid giving duplicate rankings to the same fruit. .

After the harvesting operation is completed, return the auxiliary boom (3) to the basic position.

Then, it is checked whether the swing angle (α) exceeds 45°, and if it does, the work manipulator (4) is operated at that position to harvest the fruit.

If the limit is not exceeded, the above operation is not performed.

The above operation is repeated until the boom (2) is raised by a set amount and reaches the upper limit position.

When the boom (2) reaches the upper limit position, the boom (2) is returned to the lower limit position and travels a predetermined distance (for example, 800+mm). Then, the same operation as described above is performed.

These operations will be repeated until the work is completed.

[Another example]

In the above embodiment, the proximity sensor (S1) is used as the detection sensor.
However, the specific configuration of each part can be changed in various ways, such as using an ultrasonic sensor.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the structure shown in the accompanying drawings by adding reference numerals in the claims for convenient comparison with the drawings.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the fruit tree working machine according to the present invention.
The figure is a block diagram of the control configuration, Figure 2 (A), (U> is a flowchart of control operation, Figure 3 is a schematic plan view explaining the operation of the fruit harvester, and Figure 4 is the main part of the working hand. Side view, Fig. 5 is a schematic side view of the fruit harvesting machine. (3) Base section, (4) Working section, (100)... Control means, (S,)...
... Detection sensor, (V) ... Running vehicle body, (α
)...Rotating angle.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Base portion (3) that is horizontally swingable with respect to the traveling vehicle body (V)
A working part (4) is provided at the tip of the working part (4).
A detection sensor (S_1) for detecting the distance to the fruit tree is provided, and the vehicle body is stopped every time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance with the base portion (3) in a basic position whose direction coincides with the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body; , while the traveling vehicle body is stopped, the base part (3) is swung to a working position where the distance between the fruit tree and the working part (4) is a set distance based on the information of the detection sensor (S_1); , and a control means (1) for operating the working part (4) at the working position.
00), wherein the control means (100) controls the swing angle (α) of the base portion (3) with respect to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body in the working position.
is larger than a set angle, the base part (3) is swung from the working position to the basic position, and then the working part (4) is operated again.