JPH08238015A - Hand device for harvesting fruit vegetables - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a hand device for harvesting fruit vegetables capable of surely conveying taken in fruit vegetables to a prescribed position and further improving the yield ratio without taking in leaves or twigs by installing fingers for raking the fruit vegetables into the intake port in the periphery thereof. CONSTITUTION: This hand device for harvesting fruit vegetables is constituted by installing fingers 36 for raking fruit vegetables into an intake port 8 in the periphery thereof, arranging a suction device for the fruit vegetables capable of conveying the fruit vegetables raked in the intake port 8 with a suction force so as to start the sucking operations of the suction device after performing the raking in operations with the fingers 36.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fruit and vegetable harvesting hand device for harvesting fruit and vegetables such as cherry tomatoes or cherries and apples.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In this type of harvesting machine, there is an automatic harvesting means in which fruit and vegetables recognized by a visual sensor are adsorbed by a manipulator of a harvesting robot with a vacuum pressure and taken into a harvesting hand.

[0003]

However, with such a means for adsorbing, it is difficult to surely adsorb using only the vacuum suction force, and if the suction force is strong, fruit and vegetables There are problems such as making it difficult to open the intake port that takes in the harvesting hands, and adsorbing even leaves and branches other than fruit vegetables to the intake port.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, according to the present invention, in a fruit and vegetable harvesting hand device for harvesting by picking up fruit and vegetables in an intake port at the tip of a harvesting hand, a finger that scrapes the fruit and vegetables into the intake port is provided. Provided near the mouth, when picking fruits and vegetables into the harvesting hand, let the fingering force the fingering side to the front hand side rather than the rear side of the fruits and vegetables.
By reliably scraping fruit and vegetables into the intake port, it is possible to ensure reliable harvesting of fruit and vegetables and improve the harvest rate.

Further, in a fruit and vegetable harvesting hand device for harvesting fruits and vegetables by taking them into the inlet at the end of the harvesting hand, a finger for scraping the fruits and vegetables into the inlet is provided around the inlet and A fruit and vegetable suction device that conveys the fruit and vegetables scraped into the mouth with suction force is provided, and the suction operation of the suction device is started after the finger is scraped, and the fruit and vegetables are sucked by the suction force when the fruit and vegetables are taken into the intake port. Without picking up leaves and twigs other than the kind, only fruits and vegetables that have been reliably taken in by a fingerer are reliably conveyed to a predetermined position by suction force after taking in to further improve the harvest rate. .

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view of the hand portion, FIG. 2 is an overall side view of the harvester, and FIG. 3 is a front view thereof. In the figure, (1) is a traveling wheel (3) driven by a battery on a traveling rail (2). ) A carriage of a harvesting robot (4) which moves by means of a manipulator (5) which is vertically movably mounted on a vertical movement guide rail (6) which is erected at substantially the center of the carriage (1),
(7) is a harvesting hand that is attached to the tip side of the manipulator (5) and takes in the cherry tomatoes (A) into the inlet (8), and (9) is a hand that is installed in the manipulator (5) ( 7) A three-dimensional visual sensor for imaging the front cherry tomatoes (A), (10) a temporary acrylic storage container for storing the cherry tomatoes (A) taken in by the hand (7) up to a preset number, (11) is mounted on the trolley (1), and the number of cherry tomatoes (A) in the temporary storage container (10) is the set number (6).
Fruit storage box to be transferred and stored when more than
(12) is a suction blower that is a fruit and vegetable suction device that is connected to the harvesting hand (7) through a suction hose (13) to exert a vacuum suction force, and (14) is provided at the upper end of the guide rail (6). Vertical movement servo motor for moving the manipulator (5) up and down along the rail (6),
(15) is a telescopic servomotor that moves the cherry tomato (A), which is a harvest target, back and forth along the telescopic rail (16), and (17) is a speed reducer integrated with the guide rail (6). (18) a left-right turning servomotor that horizontally turns the manipulator (5) in the left-right direction, (19) a vertical-turning servomotor that turns the manipulator (5) in the up-down direction via a speed reducer (20), ) Is a steering handle, and (22) is a control device using a small computer (personal computer), and the cherry tomato (A) recognized by the visual sensor (9) is taken in through the hand (7). It is configured so that it can be harvested and harvested.

As shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, the harvesting hand (7) uses a circular pipe (23) to form a vacuum suction transfer path (24) for the cherry tomatoes (A) therein, and the harvesting hand (7). The inlet port (8) is formed in a tapered conical shape with a small inner diameter on the front end side and a large inner diameter on the rear end side, and the inlet port (8) is divided into three parts every 120 ° on the circumference. , The movable pieces (8a) and (8b) which are divided into left and right at the center of the upper part are lifted and connected to the pipe (23) via hinges (25), and the lower fixed piece (8c) is attached to the mounting seat (26). ), The movable piece (8a) is integrally fixed to the pipe (23).
The open / close wire (27) to be connected to (8b) is pulled by the DC open / close motor (28) to open / close the intake port (8), that is, the movable pieces (8a) (8b). ing.

The harvesting hand (7) is provided with a flexible hose (29) in the middle of the circular pipe (23) so that the split pipe (23a) on the tip side of the harvesting hand (7).
The split pipe (23a) is interlockingly connected to the DC forward / reverse motor (32) for swinging the left and right hands of the hand through the rod (30) and the fan-shaped crank (31). The left and right swing limit switches (33) (34), which are swing setting means for controlling the operating range of the crank (31), are configured to swing on the tip side of the harvesting hand (7) within the control range. There is.

Further, a fruit guide plate (35) and a fruit picking finger (36) are provided at a lower front portion of the intake port (8).
The guide plate (35) and the finger (36) are connected and supported to the finger stay (37) extending forward from the mounting seat (26) through a four-bar linkage (38). Then, as shown by the phantom line in FIG. 1, the wire (39) connected to the guide plate (35) when the movable pieces (8a) and (8b) are opened is pulled by the scraping motor (40) to the finger (36). And raise the finger (3
6) The tomato (A) is forcibly scraped into the intake port (8). Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the fingers (36) are arranged in an arc shape on the same central circumference of the intake port (8) so as to improve the intake property to the intake port (8). It is a thing.

After the tomato (A) has been taken into the taking-in port (8), the movable pieces (8a) and (8b) are closed and the hand (7) is retracted, and the tomato ( A) is detached, and the tomato (A) detached after this is transported to the temporary storage container (10) through the transport path (24) by the vacuum suction force of the suction blower (12). Two
3) When the tomato (A) is clogged in the flexible hose (29) or the flexible hose (29), the suction pressure sensor (41) that detects the pressure in the hand (7) detects this pressure change to detect the clogging. Is configured to do. In this case, the clogging may be sensed by detecting the change in the current value of the suction blower (12).

As shown in FIGS. 7 to 8, the visual sensor (9) has a red laser (4) which emits three red laser beams.
2) and a near-infrared laser (43) that emits three near-infrared laser lights, and receives the reflected light from the tomato (A) through the light-receiving mirror (44) and the lens (45). The light receiving element (47) of the container (46) receives the light and the light receiving element (4)
7) It is configured such that an obstacle (green) or a ripe red fruit in front is recognized by performing a three-point distance measurement from the above image formation. Incidentally, (48) is a projection mirror, (49) is a horizontal scanning motor, and (50) is a vertical scanning motor.

Then, as shown in FIG. 11, a traveling switch (51) for driving the traveling device (51a) of the harvesting robot (4) to drive the vehicle body and an automatic switch (52) for automatically manipulating the manipulator (5). A storage number sensor (53) for detecting storage of the set number of cherry tomatoes (A) in the temporary storage container (10), and the visual sensor (9)
The controller (22) is provided with a controller (54) for input connection with the suction pressure sensor (39), the traveling device (50), the suction blower (12), the alarm device (55), and the motors (14). ) (15) (17) (1
9) (28) (32) (40) and controller (5
4) is connected to the output, and the automatic harvesting operation of the cherry tomatoes (A) is performed based on the detection of the sensors (9) (39) (53) when the automatic switch (52) is turned on. .

This embodiment is configured as described above, and its operation will be described below with reference to the flow chart of FIG.

Initializing the manipulator (5), the visual sensor (9) detects the cherry tomato (A), and leaves or branches between the intake (8) of the harvesting hand (7) and the cherry tomato (A). When the obstacle (B) such as is not present, the hand (7) is moved forward to open the intake port (8), and the finger (36) is swept to operate the tomato in the intake port (8). While (A) is taken in, when the obstacle (B) is present between the tomato (A) and the obstacle (B) is to the right or left of the tomato (A), the hand (7) is held. As shown in FIG. 9, by horizontally swiveling in the left or right direction, the intake (8) side is swung in the right or left direction opposite to the swiveling direction.
As shown in (3), the tomato (A) is taken in by bypassing the obstacle (B) and bringing the intake (8) close to the tomato (A).

Then, the tomatoes (A) taken into the intake port (8) are transferred to the temporary storage container (10) through the suction transfer path (24) in the hand (7), and the set number (6 ) Portion of tomato (A) is stored in the container (10), the tomato (A) is transferred from the container (10) to the storage box (11), and the visual sensor (9) displays the tomato (A) at the same scanning position. While recognizing A), the tomatoes (A) are harvested for the number of detections, and when all the harvests for the number of detections are completed, the scanning position is changed, and again based on the detection of the visual sensor (9). The tomato (A) harvesting operation is repeated.

During the work, the suction pressure sensor (4
When 1) detects a clogging accident of the tomato (A) in the suction conveyance path (24), the alarm device (55) is activated to notify the operator of this.

As shown in FIG. 10, the operation of taking in the cherry tomatoes (A) by the harvesting hand (7) is performed as follows. (1) Bring the intake (8) close to the cherry tomato (A). (2) Open the intake port (8) (movable pieces (8a), (8b)). (3) The finger (36) is erected in the open intake port (8) and the tomato (A) is scraped. (4) The inlet (8) is closed, and the hand (7) is retracted while keeping the standing state of the finger (36).
At this time, the tomato (A) is separated from the fruit pruning (C), and the tomato (A) starts to suck after the operation of scraping the finger (36) in the transport path (24). It is transported to (10). (5) If the cherry tomatoes (A) are caught in the intake port (8) during the above-mentioned intake work (large tomatoes (A), etc.) or the intake performance is poor, use the hand (7). The tip is tilted upward and taken in. (6) When the hand (7) is returned to the original position after taking in the tomato (A), the finger (36) is also returned to the original horizontal position.

In the above embodiment, the limit switch (3) is used as the swing setting means of the harvesting hand (7).
3) Although the configuration using (34) is shown, the swing angle can be arbitrarily changed by using a step motor instead of the swing forward / reverse motor (32). Even if the limit switches (33) and (34) are used, the hand (7)
The approach angle to the tomato (A) can be freely changed by the movement of itself.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above embodiments, the present invention provides a fruit and vegetable harvesting hand device for harvesting fruit and vegetable (A) by taking in the inlet (8) at the tip of the harvesting hand (7). Since the finger (36) for scraping the fruit and vegetables (A) into the intake (8) is provided around the intake (8), the fruit and vegetables (A) are taken into the harvesting hand (7). At some times, the finger (36) is caused to act so as to be pushed into the hand intake port (8) side from the rear side of the fruit vegetables (A), and the fruit vegetables (A) are inserted into the intake port (8). Surely,
The fruit and vegetables (A) can be reliably harvested without loss, and the harvest rate can be improved.

In addition, in the fruit vegetable harvesting hand device for harvesting by picking up the fruit vegetables (A) in the intake port (8) at the tip of the harvesting hand (7), the fruit vegetables (A) inlet port (8) A finger vegetable suction device (12) that conveys the fruit vegetables (A) scraped into the intake port (8) with suction force is provided while the finger (36) to be scraped inside is provided around the intake port (8). Since the suction device (12) is provided to start the suction operation of the suction device (12) after the finger (36) is scraped, the leaves other than the fruit vegetables (A) are sucked by the suction force when the fruit vegetables are taken into the intake port (8). Only the fruits and vegetables (A) that have been reliably taken in by the finger (36) can be reliably conveyed to the specified position by the suction force after taking them in, without taking in even the twigs and twigs, and further improve the harvest rate. It has a remarkable effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of an intake port.

FIG. 2 is an overall side view of a harvesting robot.

FIG. 3 is an overall front view of a harvesting robot.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a harvesting hand.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory plan view of a harvesting hand.

FIG. 6 is a front explanatory view of an intake port.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a visual sensor.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a visual sensor.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of the swinging motion of the harvesting hand.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of the intake of cherry tomatoes at the intake.

FIG. 11 is a control circuit diagram.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart.

[Explanation of symbols]

 (7) Harvesting hand (8) Intake port (12) Suction blower (suction device) (36) Finger (A) Cherry tomato (fruit vegetables)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A fruit and vegetable harvesting hand device for harvesting fruits and vegetables by incorporating the fruits and vegetables into the intake port at the tip of the harvesting hand, wherein a finger for scraping the fruits and vegetables into the intake port is provided around the intake port. A fruit and vegetable harvesting hand device. 2. A fruit and vegetable harvesting hand device for harvesting fruit and vegetables by incorporating the fruit and vegetables into the intake port at the tip of the harvesting hand, and providing a fingering for scraping the fruit and vegetables into the intake port in the vicinity of the intake port. A fruit and vegetable harvesting hand device characterized by being provided with a fruit and vegetable suction device that conveys the fruit and vegetables that have been scratched in the mouth with suction force, and configured to start the suction operation of the suction device after the fingering operation.