JPH06253611A - Weed state detecting system for mower - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a weed state detecting system for a mower designed to favorably maintain the detective accuracy for weed circumstances in proper response to the variation of weed presence/absence detection range (in particular, in the case that it becomes narrower) as the object of discriminating weed circumstances even in case vehicle speed is changed (in particular, toward lower speed side). CONSTITUTION:The system is provided with (A) a means 22 to detect weed presence/absence for each of plural sections divided at specified intervals along the lateral width direction of a vehicle and (B) a means 100 to discriminate weed circumstance by sampling weed presence/absence information for the respective sections for each specified time longer than the detection time while discriminating as weed presence in case weed presence is detected within a detection time for the respective sections based on the information from the means 22. The means 100 can conduct discriminative operations using information sampled in such a frequency in lower speed running of the vehicle as to be larger than that in higher speed running thereof.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is based on grass presence detection means for detecting the presence or absence of grass in each of a plurality of sections divided at predetermined intervals along the lateral direction of a vehicle body, and based on the information of the grass presence detection means. When the presence of grass is detected within the detection time for each of the plurality of sections, the presence / absence information of grass is detected for each of the plurality of sections at every predetermined time that is equal to or longer than the detection time. The present invention relates to a grass state detection device for a mowing machine, which is provided with a determination means for sampling and determining the presence state of grass.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A grass condition detecting device for a grass mower of this type is used, for example, in a self-propelled lawnmower vehicle for cutting grass as grass without manpower. At that time, grass presence information for each of a plurality of sections divided at predetermined intervals along the lateral direction of the vehicle body is sampled at predetermined intervals, and based on the sampling information, for example, an unprocessed work site and a processed work site The boundary of is discriminated as the presence state of grass (turf). However, conventionally, for example, the determination operation (for example, the detection of the boundary between the unprocessed work site and the processed work site) is performed by using, for example, only one piece of information of the sampling information at the present time. The boundary information is used as traveling control information for detecting the deviation of the vehicle body steering position with respect to the boundary based on it and causing the vehicle body to travel along the boundary so as to reduce this deviation.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, when the vehicle speed is switched between two stages of high speed and low speed (usually in a high speed state during work), the engine load becomes too heavy. Alternatively, when the vehicle speed is shifted to a low speed due to an excessive deviation of the vehicle body steering position with respect to the boundary, the distance traveled in a predetermined time corresponding to the sampling interval of the grass presence information is short. Therefore, the detection area of the grass presence / absence information, which is the target of the grass presence state determination means, becomes narrow. This variation in the detection region will be specifically described with reference to FIG. 13. If the speed ratio between the vehicle speed v _H at high speed and the vehicle speed v _L at low speed is, for example, 3: 1, the distance traveled at low speed is at high speed. 1/3 (the ratio of the distances indicated by the arrows v _L and v _{H in} the figure), and therefore the grass presence / absence detection means is configured to reciprocate in the lateral direction of the vehicle body, for example. At low speed, the one-way travel route KL1
The detection area (distance indicated by the arrow of v _L × W) crossed by is the detection area (distance indicated by the arrow of v _H × X crossed by the one-way travel route K _H at high speed ×
The area is 1/3 of W). If the narrowed detection area is a place where the planting density of grass is locally small, for example, the area is originally an unprocessed work site, but is mistaken as a treated work site. It might have been detected. Then, in this case, the boundary between the unprocessed work site and the processed work site is determined as a position that is closer to the unprocessed work site than the actual boundary. The steering control is also performed so that the unprocessed work site enters the unprocessed work site, and uncut material is left on the unprocessed work site.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to determine the presence state of grass even when the vehicle speed is changed (especially on the low speed side). An object of the present invention is to obtain a grass condition detecting device for a mower that can appropriately maintain the accuracy of detecting the presence condition of grass by appropriately responding to the variation (especially when it becomes narrow) of the presence detection region.

[0005]

A first characteristic configuration of a grass condition detecting device for a mower according to the present invention is characterized in that the determining means performs the low speed traveling a large number of times as compared with the high speed traveling. The point is that the determination operation is performed using sampling information.

A second characteristic configuration is that the grass presence / absence detecting means is provided with a grass presence / absence detecting section that is operated to reciprocate along the lateral direction of the vehicle body at a predetermined speed.

[0007]

According to the first characteristic configuration of the present invention, the grass presence / absence detection information for each of a plurality of sections divided at predetermined intervals along the lateral direction of the vehicle body is sampled at predetermined intervals, and when traveling at low speed, By using the above sampling information a number of times more than when traveling at high speed, for example, when sampling at high speed, only the sampling information at the present time is used, while at the time of traveling at low speed, sampling information at the present time and before the current time is used. , The presence state of grass (for example, the boundary between an unprocessed work site and a processed work site) is determined.

According to the second characteristic configuration, the grass presence / absence detecting section provided in the grass presence / absence detecting means is reciprocally operated in the lateral direction of the vehicle body at a predetermined speed, and the grass presence / absence detecting section is used for the above detection. The presence or absence of grass in each section is detected when it is located in each of the plurality of sections.

[0009]

Therefore, according to the first characteristic configuration of the present invention, even if the detection target area targeted by the sampling information for each time of the grass presence / absence detecting means is narrowed in the case of low speed traveling, the grass is detected. It is possible to effectively prevent a decrease in the accuracy of determining the existence state of the grass, and thus to ensure the reliability of the grass condition detecting device despite the change in the vehicle speed.

Further, according to the second characteristic configuration, it is possible to detect the presence / absence of grass in a plurality of sections by using one grass presence / absence detection unit. Therefore, for example, the presence / absence detection of grass is detected in each of a plurality of sections for detection. The device configuration of the grass presence / absence detection means can be simplified as compared with the case where a part is provided.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a lawnmower working vehicle as a mower will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, a rotary blade 2 for lawn mowing is attached to a lower portion of a vehicle body V on which an engine E is mounted, and free front wheels as steering wheels are provided on the front and rear portions of the vehicle body V. 1F and a pair of left and right drive rear wheels 1L, 1 to which the driving force of the engine E is transmitted via a drive case 3 as a vehicle speed changing means capable of switching the vehicle speed between two stages of high speed and low speed.
R and R are attached to form a lawnmower work vehicle. The speed ratio between the high speed vehicle speed v _H and the low speed vehicle speed v _L is 3:
It is set to 1. Further, the rotary blade body 2 is connected to the engine E via an electromagnetically operated mower clutch 15 (see FIG. 1).
Are linked to. The front wheel 1F is provided with a steering mechanism including a steering gear 1A that directly steers the front wheel, a steering motor M1 for automatic steering, and a motor gear 1B that transmits the driving force of the steering motor M1 to the steering gear 1A. It is attached to the vehicle body V. A second potentiometer F for detecting the steering angle θi of the front wheels 1F is installed on the rotary shaft of the steering gear 1A.
A first encoder 14 that detects the number of rotations of the front wheel 1F is provided on the rotation shaft portion of the front wheel 1F. The traveling distance is calculated by integrating the rotation pulses of the first encoder 14. In addition, a fluxgate type geomagnetic sensor S0 using a toroidal core is installed in the vehicle body V in order to detect the current azimuth of the work vehicle during traveling.

At the lower front portion of the vehicle body V, there is provided a guard plate 11 that covers the lower portion on the front side of the vehicle body other than the portion where the front wheels 1F are located, with its lower surface extending along the horizontal direction. The tip of the grass that extends upward is the vehicle body V
As the vehicle travels, it is pushed in the traveling direction and enters the lower side of the guard plate 11. As shown in FIG. 2, at the upper part of the guard plate 11 and at the position rearward of the front end part thereof,
Bearing part 1 in which a pair of left and right cylindrical bodies 12 are fixed to the vehicle body V
It is provided so as to be swingable about the axis of the vertical axis and supported by 3 so as not to fall. Then, on the lower front surface side of each of the pair of left and right cylindrical bodies 12, two grass height detection sensors formed of a pair of reflective photointerrupters set so that their detection directions form a predetermined angle (for example, 15 degrees). S1, S2 or S3, S4 are arranged in a distributed manner, and a total of these four grass height detection sensors S1, S2, S
3 and S4 are for detection on the front side of the vehicle body while changing the detection position along the lateral width direction of the vehicle body V as the pair of left and right cylindrical bodies 12 are rocked by a rocking mechanism 23 described later. The presence or absence of uncut grass is detected by emitting the optical signal of and detecting the reflected light. That is, if there is reflected light, the turf-presence state is detected, while if there is no reflected light, the turf-plucked state is detected.

As shown in FIG. 2, the swing mechanism 23 has one side (right side) of the pair of left and right cylindrical bodies 12.
Of the arm 24 projecting from the upper side surface of the vehicle toward the inside of the vehicle body, and the rolling wheel 2 pivotally supported around the longitudinal axis at the tip of the arm 24.
4A, an eccentric cam 25 arranged so as to abut the 4A, and a sensor swinging motor m and the like provided on the upper part for rotating the eccentric cam 25. The arm 24 is made of a spring material (not shown) or the like, and the eccentric cam 25
It is urged toward the abutment. An arm 26 is provided so as to project from the upper side surface of each of the pair of left and right cylindrical bodies 12 toward the front side of the vehicle body, and the tip ends of these left and right arms 26 are linked to each other by link bars 28.
Are linked by. With the above configuration, when the eccentric cam 25 is rotated by the sensor swing motor m, the right cylindrical body 12 swings in the vehicle width direction, and in conjunction with this, the left cylindrical body 12 also swings in the vehicle width direction. The turf is swung to the left and right, and the turf presence detection positions of the pair of left and right turf height detection sensors S1, S2 or S3, S4 are reciprocatingly scanned in the vehicle width direction.

As shown in FIG. 2, the lawn presence / absence detection position is configured to detect the presence / absence of lawn within a predetermined width W in the vehicle width direction near the tip of the guard plate 11. . That is, the turf height detection sensors S1 and S2 or the turf height detection sensor S that are moved and scanned by the swing mechanism 23.
The presence / absence of grass at a predetermined height above the lower surface position of the guard plate 11 is detected by each of the sensors S3 and S4 for each section divided into intervals at which the width W is divided into eight parts. Eight lawn presence / absence data D0 by swing scanning of the lawn height detection sensors S1, S2 or S3, S4
.About.D7 or D8 to D15 are obtained. Each data D0
D15 is digital data indicating "1" when there is grass and "0" when there is no grass. The above section is defined by detecting the swing angle of the section with the first potentiometer G provided on the rotary shaft of the right cylinder pair 12, and the time during which the detection position of each sensor is moving within each section. If the presence of grass is detected within (this is referred to as the detection time), the data in that section is the grass presence data. From the above, the lawn height detection sensors S1, S2, S3, S4 and the swing mechanism 23
By the above, grass presence detecting means 22 for detecting the presence of grass, that is, grass, is configured for each of a plurality of sections divided at predetermined intervals along the lateral direction of the vehicle body.
Is a grass height detection sensor S1, S2 as a grass presence / absence detection unit that is reciprocally moved along the lateral direction of the vehicle body at a predetermined speed.
S3 and S4 will be provided.

Drive case 3 as the vehicle speed shifting means
Is composed of a ball-type clutch mechanism, as shown in FIG. That is, on the rear side of the transmission shaft 27 connected to the output part of the engine E, the low speed side primary gear 31L and the high speed side primary gear 31H are arranged side by side in the axial direction thereof.
Is loosely fitted on the outside. The low-speed primary gear 3
1L meshes with the low speed side secondary gear 34L, and the high speed side primary gear 31H meshes with the high speed side secondary gear 34H. Both the primary gears 31L and 31H are provided with boss portions 32L and 32H, respectively, which are arranged to face each other, and a plurality of balls 3 are respectively provided at appropriate positions of the boss portions 32L and 32H.
3L and 33H are held so that they can project in both the inner and outer directions. The ball 33 is provided at the position corresponding to the boss portion of the transmission shaft 27.
The annular recesses 27a and 27b are formed so that the L and 33H can be dropped and engaged with the L and 33H in a state of protruding inward. Around the bosses 32L and 32H, the bosses 32L and 32H are freely movable in the axial direction, and balls 33L and 3 are respectively provided at both ends.
A clutch sleeve 35 that can press one of the 3H inward from the outside is arranged. A second encoder 18 for detecting the rotation speed of the transmission shaft 27 is attached to the rear end portion of the transmission shaft 27, and the rotation speed of the engine E is determined from the rotation speed detected by the second encoder 18.

A gear shifting motor 36 for moving the clutch sleeve 35 in the axial direction, a first gear 38 to which the rotational driving force of the gear shifting motor 36 is transmitted after passing through a worm speed reduction mechanism 37, and the gear 38 meshes therewith. A second gear 39 is provided. Further, a swivel shaft 42 is disposed at the axial center position of the second gear 39 so as to be parallel to the axial center direction of the second gear 39 and to be freely rotatable, and the eccentric cam 4 is provided at the base end portion of the swivel shaft 42.
3 is attached, and a rod-like locking piece 41 is attached to the tip end portion in a state orthogonal to the axial center direction of the coil spring 40.
, One end of which is fixed and held by the second gear 39,
The other end is arranged so as to abut on the locking piece 41. Then, when the speed change motor 36 is rotationally driven, the second gear 39 rotates at a low speed, and the locking piece 4 is caused by the elastic force of the coil spring 40.
1 is pressed in a predetermined direction, whereby the swivel shaft 42, that is, the eccentric cam 43 swivels, and the clutch sleeve 35 reciprocates in the axial direction according to the swiveling of the eccentric cam 43.

The clutch sleeve 35 is shown in FIG.
When it moves in the direction of the high speed side gear as shown in (a), the ball 33L on the low speed side primary gear 31L side is pressed by the end of the clutch sleeve 35 and enters into the annular recess 27a to be engaged with the transmission shaft 27. The rotational driving force is transmitted to the low speed side primary gear 31L (the driving force is further transmitted to the low speed side secondary gear 34L), while the clutch sleeve 35 is in the direction of the low speed side gear as shown in FIG. When you move to
The ball 33H on the high speed side primary gear 31H side is pressed by the end of the clutch sleeve 35 and enters into the annular recess 27b to be engaged, and the rotational driving force of the transmission shaft 27 is increased by the high speed side primary gear 31.
It is transmitted to H (the driving force thereof is higher secondary gear 34).
(Transferred to H), and gear shift operation is performed accordingly. A primary bevel gear 61 that constitutes a part of the forward / reverse switching clutch 16 is provided on the rotary shaft 44 that supports both the low speed side secondary gear 34L and the high speed side secondary gear 34H.
Is attached. Further, when the clutch sleeve 35 is at the position shown in FIG. 7, the rotational driving force of the transmission shaft 27 is not transmitted to the lower side of the transmission, so the drive case 3 transmits the power to the drive rear wheels 1L, 1R. It also functions as an interrupting means for shutting off.

Rotational positioning of the eccentric cam 43 for the gear shifting operation is performed by the structure shown in FIG. First
A detection piece 38a is attached to the rotary shaft 38b of the gear 38 so as to be driven in a posture along the first gear 38, and the surface of the worm speed reduction mechanism 37 on the first gear 38 side has its output portion. Four proximity sensors 37a, which detect the detected piece 38a in the proximity state, are attached around the, in a state in which the phases are shifted by 90 °. Of the four proximity sensors 37a, the pair of proximity sensors 37a, which are 180 ° out of phase with each other, are arranged such that one of them is located at a high speed state confirmation position and the other is located at a low speed state confirmation position. . The other two proximity sensors 37a correspond to the neutral state. By using the proximity sensor 37a, it is possible to accurately ascertain which of the above-mentioned states the rotation state of the first gear 38 corresponds to, and based on the grasping, the first gear 38 is provided with the above-mentioned state. The eccentric cam 43, which is mechanically linked, can be accurately pivotally positioned in the low speed state and the high speed state.

As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, inside the left and right pair of driving rear wheels 1L and 1R, the driving rear wheels 1L and 1R located on the turning center side during turning are floated above the ground. Left and right that can descend and descend to a descending state and an ascending state in which the rear drive wheels 1L and 1R located on the center side of the turning after the turning is completed are raised so as to touch the ground, and the turning center is formed in the descending state. A pair of lifting type grounding bodies 9 are attached to the vehicle body V through a grounding mechanism, and
The grounding portion 9A of the lifting / lowering grounding body 9 that grounds to the ground is supported by the base end side of the lifting / lowering grounding body 9 in a rotatable state about the vertical axis. In the grounding mechanism, the bent portions of a pair of left and right doglegged links 4 are swingably attached to the drive case 3 around respective fulcrums P1 and P2, and a lifting grounding body 9 is attached to one end of the link 4. , A spring 5 for urging the elevating grounding body 9 upward is attached to the other end, and the other end of the link 4 is rocked to ground the elevating grounding body 9 against the urging force of the spring 5. The cam mechanism 6 is operated dynamically. The cam mechanism 6 is composed of a cam 6A, a pair of gears 7 for rotating the cam 6A, and a grounding motor 8 connected to the gear 7, and each time the cam 6A rotates 90 °. In addition, the pair of left and right elevating type grounding bodies 9 descends so as to levitate the pair of left and right driving rear wheels 1L and 1R on the side of the elevating type grounding body 9 and the lifted driving rear wheels 1L. , 1R and the ascending state of ascending so as to be grounded are alternately repeated.

As shown in FIG. 1, a control device H utilizing a microcomputer is provided, and the control device H includes the geomagnetic sensor S0, the first encoder 14, and the second encoder.
Encoder 18, the lawn height detection sensors S1, S2, S
Signals from S3, S4, the first potentiometer G, the second potentiometer F, and the four proximity sensors 37a are input. Further, from the control device H, the steering motor M1, the mower clutch 1
5, a drive signal is output to the shift motor 36, the sensor swing motor m, and the grounding motor 8. Further, the control device H is a memory MEM for storing information.
It is connected to the.

The memory MEM and the geomagnetic sensor S
0, the direction of the first work stroke K1 in which the worker directs the vehicle body V at the start of work, that is, the unprocessed work site A
By storing in the memory MEM the angle θ formed by the direction (see FIG. 3) indicated by the boundary L between the processed work site B and the direction J of the geomagnetism detected by the geomagnetic sensor S0 as the reference azimuth θ ₀ , The reference azimuth setting means 10 is configured to set the direction indicated by the boundary L between the processing work site A and the processed work site B as the reference azimuth.

Using the control device H, if grass is detected within the detection time for each of the plurality of sections based on the information of the grass presence / absence detection means 22, it is determined that grass is present. A determining unit 100 is configured to determine the presence state of grass by sampling the grass presence information for each of the plurality of sections at every predetermined time equal to or longer than the detection time. Here, the existence state of the grass to be discriminated is determined by the boundary L between the unprocessed work site A and the processed work site B in the lateral direction of the vehicle body.
I am trying. The grass height detection sensors S1, S2 or S3, S4 are moved one way from one end to the other end of the detection width W along the lateral direction of the vehicle body for a predetermined time to give the sampling interval of the grass presence information. Is set to the time required. Further, the discriminating means 100 is configured to perform the discriminating operation using the sampling information a large number of times when the vehicle travels at a low speed than when traveling at a high speed. Then, the control device H uses the determination means 100.
The displacement amount from the proper position of the vehicle body V with respect to the boundary L discriminated by is detected.

The operation of discriminating the boundary L and the operation of detecting the amount of displacement will be described below with reference to the state of FIG. Figure 1
As shown in 3, vehicle speed v _H at high speed and vehicle speed v _L at low speed
Since the speed ratio between the and is 3: 1, the distance traveled at low speed is 1/3 that at high speed. Therefore, when traveling at low speed,
Data obtained by moving the lawn height detection sensors S1, S2, S3, S4 to one-way moving routes KL1, KL2, KL3 three times are logically ORed for each section D0 to D7. The grass presence data for each section is used. The logical OR operation means that if at least one of the three data in each section has grass, the data in that section has grass. On the other hand, when traveling at a high speed, the data obtained by one-way moving route KH is used as it is as the grass presence / absence data D0 to D7 for each section. Then, in the grass presence / absence data D0 to D7 for each section, the bit position (D3 in FIG. 2) of the data “1” of the unprocessed work site A closest to the processed work site B side and the unprocessed work site A side. An intermediate position between the bit position (D2 in FIG. 2) of the data “0” of the closest processed work site B is set to the boundary L.
Is determined as. Then, the center position of the pair of lawn height detection sensors S1, S2 or S3, S4, which is determined as the proper steering position of the vehicle body V in the lateral direction of the vehicle body, that is,
Eight grass presence data D0 to D7 (or D8 to D15)
The displacement amount Δy in which the intermediate position between the bit D3 (or D11) and the bit D4 (or D12) is displaced with respect to the boundary L is detected as the displacement amount.
The sign of the deviation amount Δy is positive when the proper steering position is deviated to the left side of the boundary L in the lateral direction of the vehicle body, and therefore FIG. 2 shows a state of Δy = −1.

Further, the control device H, based on the displacement amount Δy detected as the displacement amount and the information of the second potentiometer F, the larger the displacement amount Δy (actually its absolute value) is, the larger the displacement amount Δy becomes. Steering wheel 1F target steering angle θst
(Actually, its absolute value) is set to a large value, and steering control of the steered wheels 1F is performed so that the detected steering angle θi becomes the target steering angle θst. still,
Each of the detected steering angle θi and target steering angle θst has a value corresponding to a steering neutral state in which the vehicle body V is in a straight traveling state, and is zero when steering to the right and steering to the left. The sign is set so that is a negative value. Further, the control device H controls the angular difference between the steering angle θi and the target steering angle θst (actually, if the two steering angles θi and θst have the same sign, the absolute values of the two steering angles θi and θst are the same). The difference is the sum of the absolute values of both steering angles θi and θst.
Is set to exceed a set angle (for example, 25 degrees), the drive case 3 is configured to shift to the low speed side to run at low speed.

The above-mentioned target steering angle setting operation will be described with reference to FIG.
Will be described in detail. (A) shows a situation in which the boundary L between the unprocessed work site A and the processed work site B is slightly curved to the left at the beginning and then largely curved to the right. Therefore, the vehicle body V is initially in a state of being steered slightly to the left along the boundary L (steering angle θi <0), but the detected position of the next boundary L largely moves to the right and its deviation amount is increased. Δy becomes a large positive value ((b) shows Δy = 3), and the target steering angle θst
Is set to a large positive angle (θst> 0) by the following formula from this deviation amount Δy. Both steering angles θ in this case
Since i and θst have different signs, the angular difference is the sum of absolute values, and the angular difference exceeds the set angle (for example, 25 degrees). By the way, in this case, if the high-speed traveling is continued without shifting to the low-speed traveling, uncut residue is generated in a portion of the unprocessed work site A indicated by the area C.

[0027]

[Equation 1] θ _ST = p · Δy (p is a gain coefficient)

Next, the control operation of the control unit H will be described with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS.

First, when the vehicle body V is moved to the starting end portion of the first work stroke K1 of the work site by manual operation, and the automatic traveling control is started in a state where the direction of the vehicle body V is aligned with the direction of the work stroke K1. , The direction in which the vehicle body V is facing is stored as the reference azimuth θ ₀ , and the steering angle θ of the front wheel 1F is stored.
i is steered to be in the steering neutral state, that is, the state of θi = 0, and initial setting such as confirming that the lifting / lowering grounding body 9 for turning is in a raised state is performed. Before starting the automatic travel control, the turn direction (left side in the example of FIG. 3) at the terminal end of the first work stroke K1 is input and set.

Next, the initial values of various control variables are set. That is, the mileage, the width MAX, the overload flag, and the turn flag are reset to 0, and the left number of grass, the right number of grass, the left number of front grass, and the right number of front grass are set to 4, respectively. In addition, the left number of grass and the right number of grass are the sensors S on the left side, respectively.
1, S2 or the number of grass-existing data detected by the sensors S3, S4 on the right side, and the number of front grasses on the left and the number of front grasses on the right are respectively the above-mentioned grass-existing data at the detection point one before the current point. Represents the number of. The width MAX will be described later. Then, after the mower clutch 15 is turned on, the gear shift operation is performed in a high speed state to start traveling. After the running is started, the state of the turn flag is checked. If the turn flag is on, turn processing (FIG. 17) described later is performed. On the other hand, when the turn flag is in the OFF state, the lawn presence / absence data sampled at every predetermined time is used as described above, that is, when the vehicle speed is low, this time and two times before this time, a total of three times of data are logically calculated. Calculated sum, when the vehicle speed is high, this time's data is used as it is and the grass presence data D for each section
0 to D15 are determined. Then, based on the data D8 to D15 or D0 to D7 of the sensor on the opposite side (that is, the side where the boundary L is located) of the turf presence data D0 to D15 for each section from the set turn direction. Then, the position of the boundary L is detected as described above, and the positional deviation, that is, the deviation amount Δy from the proper steering position of the vehicle body V is detected.

Next, in the data D0 to D7 or D8 to D15 of the sensor on the side opposite to the side on which the boundary L is located, the bit position on the outermost side of the vehicle body is used as the 0 reference (in the example of FIG. 12, , The D0 bit of the sensor S1 becomes 0) The end of the unprocessed work site A opposite to the boundary L, that is, the bit position of the most processed work site B side of the lawnless data is detected,
This is the width left or width right value. Therefore, the value on the left side or the right side of the width increases from 0 toward the inside of the vehicle body from the 0 reference position. When all the bits are turfless data, the width left or width right value is set to 8. Then, only when the value of the width left or the width right is larger than the value of the width MAX, the value of the width left or the width right is replaced as the value of the width MAX. From the above, the larger the value of width MAX,
The end of the unprocessed work site A on the side opposite to the boundary L for steering control is located on the processed work site B side, and the width of the unprocessed work site A that remains uncut is narrow. Where width MA
When the value of X is 7 or more, it is set that the unprocessed work site A is processed by the currently traveling process and there is no remaining process process.

Next, the left side (or right side) of the grass is detected by the sensor on the side opposite to the side where the boundary L is located, and the front grass at the detection point immediately before is detected. Compare the number left of (or right of the front lawn) with 1/4. When the current left number of grass (or right number of grass) is less than 1/4 of the previous left number of front grass (or right number of front grass),
Turn on the turn flag (set 1). That is, as described above, when the number of turf is greatly reduced, it means that the end of the work process such as headland has been reached, and the preparation for the turn to the next work process is made. From the above, as the grass existence state determined by the determination unit 100, detection of the end position of the work stroke corresponds to detection of the boundary L, in addition to detection of the boundary L.

Next, as described above, the target steering angle θst is obtained from the deviation amount Δy, and the steering operation is started so that the target steering angle θst becomes the steering angle θi. At the same time, the error handling (Fig. 1
Perform 6). In the abnormality processing, if the vehicle speed is high speed (high speed in normal driving), it is judged whether the engine speed is within the proper range, that is, the proper load state, and the proper range is determined. If it is not within the range, the overload flag is turned on (1 is set) and the gear is changed to the low speed state. If the engine speed is within the proper range, it is determined whether or not the angle difference between the target steering angle θst and the steering angle θi exceeds a set angle (25 degrees).

On the other hand, if the vehicle speed is low, it is checked whether the overload flag is on. If the overload flag is off, it means that the vehicle is traveling at low speed because the angle difference between the target steering angle θst and the steering angle θi exceeds the set angle (25 degrees) as described above. In this case, Only when it is confirmed that the deviation amount Δy has become 0 and the vehicle has traveled for 2 m or more from the point where the shift operation to the low speed state is started and the low speed traveling is started, the speed is changed to the high speed state. On the other hand, if the overload flag is ON, it means that the engine E is not in the proper load state and the speed is changed to the low speed state as described above. Therefore, it is determined whether the engine speed has returned to the proper range. Only when the engine speed has returned to the proper range and the vehicle has traveled 2 m or more from the point where the overload flag was turned on, the overload flag is turned off to shift to a high speed state.

In the turn process (FIG. 17), the detection operation of the lawn height detection sensors S1, S2, S3, S4 is stopped, and after the steering operation is performed in the steering neutral state, the value of the width MAX is 7 or more. Determine whether or not. If the value of the width MAX is less than 7, it is determined that the work process remains in the unprocessed work site A.
After moving forward by mm, the automatic turning operation is performed, the turn direction is switched, and the operation is shifted to the next working stroke. During the turning operation, the geomagnetic sensor S0 is used to confirm the direction of the vehicle body V and whether or not the vehicle has made a 180 ° turn, and the drive rear wheel 1L on the side other than the turning center detected by the encoder 14, It is determined from the traveling amount of 1R that the vehicle is ready for the next work stroke. On the other hand, if the value of the width MAX is 7 or more, it is determined that there is no work stroke left in the unprocessed work site A, that is, the stroke that has been traveled so far is the final stroke, so the travel is stopped at that point. To finish the work.

[Other Embodiment] In the above embodiment, the grass presence / absence detecting means 22 is used as the grass presence / absence detecting section S as a grass height detecting sensor S.
Based on the detection signal obtained by reciprocating 1, S2, S3, S4 at a predetermined speed along the lateral direction of the vehicle body, the presence or absence of grass in each of a plurality of sections divided at a predetermined interval along the lateral direction of the vehicle body is determined. It is configured to detect, and specifically, one grass presence / absence detection unit (sensors S1, S2, S3, S4) detects four grass zones corresponding to four zones. The correspondence between the number of detection units (sensors) and the detection section is not limited to this, and various settings can be made. Further, instead of providing the movable grass presence / absence detection unit, for example, a fixed grass presence / absence detection unit (sensor) may be provided for each section.
In the case of a fixed grass presence / absence detection unit (sensor), it is desirable that the detection width be approximately the same as the width of the section.

Further, in the above embodiment, the vehicle speed is switched between high speed and low speed in two stages (gear ratio is 3: 1), and the discrimination means 100 for discriminating the presence state of grass detects the presence or absence of grass every predetermined time at high speed. The case where the determination operation is performed by using the sampling information of the grass presence / absence detection information sampled once by the means 22 and by using the sampling information a number of times (three times) more than at the time of high speed is exemplified. The configuration is not limited to this, and the number of times of sampling information to be used can be appropriately changed depending on, for example, the number of gears or the gear ratio. For example, when the vehicle speed is switched to three stages of high speed, medium speed, and low speed (gear ratio is 3: 2: 1), sampling information of once at high speed, twice at medium speed, and three times at low speed Can be configured to use.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, as an example of the grass existence state to be discriminated by the discriminating means 100, the boundary L between the unprocessed work site A and the processed work site B and the end of the work process are detected. However, in addition to this, for example, the planting density of the grass, the cutting width, and the like may be targets for determination. Further, in the above embodiment, the example of performing the logical sum operation in the determination operation is illustrated, but the configuration of the processing is not limited to the logical wheel operation, and for example, in the case of detecting the planting density of grass, information of multiple times is given. A simple addition process may be used.

Further, in the above embodiment, when the angle difference between the steering angle θi and the steering target angle θst exceeds the set angle, the traveling is switched to the low speed traveling without being stopped.
Once the vehicle is stopped, the steering angle θi becomes the steering target angle θst.
Alternatively, the steering operation may be performed so that the traveling is restarted.

In the above embodiment, the set angle, which is the criterion for determining the angle difference between the steering angle θi and the steering target angle θst, is set to 25 °. However, this set angle is the steering performance of the steering wheel 1F and the rotary blade. It can be appropriately changed depending on the cutting width of the body 2 and the like.

Further, in the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to the lawnmower work vehicle, but it can be applied to various mowers other than this.

It should be noted that reference numerals are given in the claims for convenience of comparison with the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the configurations of the accompanying drawings by the entry.

[0043]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a control configuration.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a grass presence detection unit.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a work form

FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of a vehicle body.

FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of a vehicle body.

FIG. 6 is a schematic front view of a vehicle body.

FIG. 7 is a vertical sectional side view of the vehicle speed changing means.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of a shift position detection sensor.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the vehicle speed shifting means.

FIG. 10 is a rear view of the turning mechanism.

FIG. 11 is an operation explanatory view of the turning mechanism.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of steering control.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a discriminating means.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of control operation.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of control operation.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of control operation.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of control operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 22 Grass Existence Detection Means 100 Discrimination Means S1, S2, S3, S4 Grass Existence Detection Units

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A grass presence / absence detecting means (22) for detecting the presence / absence of grass in each of a plurality of sections divided at predetermined intervals along the lateral direction of the vehicle body, and based on information of the grass presence / absence detecting means (22). When the presence of grass is detected within the detection time for each of the plurality of sections, the presence / absence information of grass is detected for each of the plurality of sections at every predetermined time that is equal to or longer than the detection time. A grass state detecting device for a mowing machine, comprising: a determining means (100) for sampling and determining the presence state of grass, wherein the determining means (100) is used when the vehicle is traveling at a low speed and traveling at a high speed. Rather than the above, a grass condition detection device for a mower, which is configured to perform the determination operation using the sampling information of a large number of times. 2. The grass presence / absence detecting means (22) is configured to include a grass presence / absence detecting section (S1, S2, S3, S4) which is reciprocally operated along a lateral direction of the vehicle body at a predetermined speed. The grass condition detection device for a mower according to claim 1.