JPH09191737A - Harvester for root vegetables - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce labor by detecting root vegetables left without being dug by a harvester for root vegetables and digging up the left root vegetables together with soil. SOLUTION: This harvester has a holding and transporting device 2 which consists of a pair of right and left belts 7, holds leaves of stems of a root vegetable pulls out the root vegetable and transports upward to the rear. A root vegetable detecting means 1 for detecting not pulled root vegetables and a root vegetable digging up means 3 for dropping in relation to the detection of the root vegetate detecting means 1 and digging up the root vegetables together with soil are installed behind the holding and transporting device 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a root vegetable harvester for harvesting root vegetables such as carrots.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art No conventional root vegetable harvester has a device for digging up root vegetables remaining in a field when the carrying device 2 cannot hold and pull out root vegetables.

[0003]

In the root vegetable harvesting machine as described above, the root vegetables that could not be held and pulled out were dug up later by human power such as a hoe. An object of the present invention is to provide a labor-saving root vegetable harvesting machine having a function of digging up root vegetables remaining in a field scene.

[0004]

The above object of the present invention is achieved by the following constitution. That is, there is a holding and conveying device 2 that holds and pulls out the foliage portion 7 of root vegetables consisting of a pair of left and right belts 2a and 2b, and carries the holding and conveying device 2 rearward and upward, and the root vegetables not pulled out behind the holding and conveying device 2. A root vegetable harvesting means 1 for detecting roots and a root vegetable digging means 3 which descends in association with the detection of the root vegetable detecting means 1 and digs root vegetables together with soil. It is a machine.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. An embodiment of a carrot harvester for harvesting carrots as root vegetables will be described. 1 and 2 show a carrot harvester embodying the present invention. On the front left side of the chassis 5 having the traveling device 4, a raising device 6 for raising the foliage part 7 of the carrot, and from the lower rear of the raising device 6 to above the chassis 5, the foliage part 7 of the carrot is held. A holding and conveying device 2 composed of a pair of left and right belts 2a and 2b for pulling and conveying is installed. An operation unit 11 is provided on the right side of the machine body.

[0006] From the rear lower part of the holding and conveying device 2 to the rear of the carrot harvester, a secondary conveying device 9 for conveying carrots substantially parallel to the chassis 5, and a carrot foliage on the rear portion of the secondary conveying device 9. A cutter 10 for separating and cutting the portion 7 and the root portion 8 is provided. Below the cutter 10,
A belt conveyor 12 that conveys the root 8 after cutting to the right side of the machine body, and a container 13 that houses the root 8 at the end thereof.
Is provided.

When the carrot harvester having such a structure is advanced, the raising device 6 raises the foliage 7 of the carrot,
Then, at the start end of the holding and conveying device 2, the belt 2a
The foliage portion 7 is located between the belt and the belt 2b. The belt 2
Since the contact surfaces of the a and the belt 2b are rotated to the rear of the machine body, the foliage portion 7 is thereby moved to the belt 2a.
It is held by the belt 2b and pulled out. The carrots that have been pulled out are conveyed to the end portion of the holding and conveying device 2 and are taken over by the secondary conveying device 9.

Upon taking over to the secondary transfer device 9,
The heads 8a of the roots 8 of all the harvested carrots are aligned, and then a cutter 10 is provided between the foliage 7 and the roots 8.
The foliage portion 7 is removed by cutting at.
That is, when the carrot reaches the end portion of the sandwiching and conveying device 2, the lower portion of the foliage portion 7 is sandwiched by the head alignment belt 15. This holding force is set to be weaker than the holding force of the holding and conveying device 2. (The head alignment belt 15 has the same structure as the sandwiching and conveying device 2 and is composed of a pair of left and right belts.) Therefore, at this point, the foliage portion 7 is sandwiched and conveyed by the sandwiching and conveying device 2.
Since it is gripped by both the head alignment belt 15 and the head alignment belt 15, the gripping and transporting device 2 tries to lift the entire carrot upward when transported in such a state, so that the root portion 8 moves upward. Then, the head 8a comes into contact with the lower portion of the head alignment belt 15, and the positions of the heads 8a of all carrots are aligned.

After that, since the holding of the foliage portion 7 is released from the holding and conveying device 2, the head-aligning belt 15 is placed before that.
The foliage portion 7 is held by a holding belt 16 that holds and conveys the foliage portion 7 in parallel with. Further, in order to more surely hold the foliage part 7, the upper part of the foliage part 7 is held by the holding belt 17.
(The holding belts 16 and 17 have the same configuration as the holding and conveying device 2 and are composed of a pair of left and right belts.) As a result, after the carrot is released from the holding and conveying device 2, the head alignment belt 15 and the holding belt 16 are released. , 17 belts are conveyed to the rear part of the machine substantially parallel to the chassis 5.

After passing through the end portion of the head aligning belt 15,
The cutter 10 separates and cuts between the foliage portion 7 and the root portion 8. The root 8 after cutting falls onto the belt conveyor 12 below. Root 8 dropped on the belt conveyor 12
Are transported to the right side of the machine body and stored in the container 13 from the end portion thereof. Further, the foliage portion 7 after the root portion 8 is separated is carried further to the rear of the machine body while being held by the holding belts 16 and 17, and is discharged from the terminal end portion thereof onto the field.

Carrots are harvested by a series of operations as described above, however, in some cases, carrot root 8 cannot be pulled out. This is, for example, when the root portion 8 of the carrot is large and pullout resistance is large. Conventionally,
Carrots that could not be harvested by pulling out were dug up by human power such as hoe after the carrot harvester passed,
It took effort and time. In order to prevent such a conventional problem, a root vegetable detecting means 1 and a root vegetable digging means 3 are provided behind the holding and conveying device 2. In this embodiment, the root vegetable detecting means 1 uses a CCD camera, and the root vegetable digging means 3 is a digging device that is moved up and down by a hydraulic cylinder 14.

The CCD camera 1 constantly monitors the field scene and detects carrots that the holding and conveying device 2 has not pulled out. Since the root portion 8 of carrot is buried in the field, it cannot be detected, and the foliage portion 7 remaining in the field scene is detected. Since the color of the foliage 7 is green, if there is a certain amount of green in the image obtained by the CCD camera 1, it is judged to be the foliage 7, and the carrot is dug up with the soil by the excavator 3. To do. This electrical configuration is shown in FIG.

A CCD camera 1 is connected to an input side of a control device 100 (hereinafter referred to as CPU), and a hydraulic cylinder 14 for moving the excavator 3 up and down is connected to an output side thereof. The image obtained by the CCD camera 1 is transmitted to the CPU 100, and the CPU 100 determines how much green is present in the image. If the green color is above a certain level, it is determined to be the foliage section 7 and the hydraulic cylinder 14 is operated,
When the excavator 3 is moved downward, the carrot is dug up with the soil, and when the excavation is completed, the excavator 3 moves upward.
As a result, there is no need to manually dig up with a hoe or the like, and wasteful time and labor are reduced.

Further, in order to improve the accuracy of green color detection by the CCD camera, the halogen light 19 is applied to the foliage portion 7. As a characteristic of the halogen light 19, when it hits the green color, the reflected light emphasizes the green wavelength, so C
The CD camera 1 can easily detect the green color. Furthermore, CC
If the light entrance portion of the D camera 1 is provided with the filter 20 that cuts unnecessary wavelengths, the wavelength cut by the filter 20 is not input into the CPU 100, and the CPU 1
The calculation for green detection within 00 is relaxed and the calculation speed for green detection is increased. Further, the contact type sensor 18 may be used instead of the CCD camera 1. This can be detected because the foliage portion 7 projects upward from the field scene, and can be constructed at a lower cost than the CCD camera 1.

In this way, the foliage 7 is detected and carrots are dug up. At this time, the assistant may forget to pick up carrot even if the dugout is done, so the foliage 7 is detected. When it does, or when the digging device 3 is activated, it may be notified by a buzzer or the like. This will help you remember to pick up the carrots you dug up.

Further, as described above, the excavator 3 may be constantly lowered in the field without using the CCD camera 1 and the contact type sensor 18. This makes it possible to reliably dig up the carrot that has been left uncut at low cost. This alternative embodiment is shown in FIG.
Is shown in FIG. Near the start end of the holding and conveying device 2,
In addition, the excavator 3 is installed between the holding and conveying device 2 and the operating portion 11, and further behind the excavator 3, a guide body 22 for guiding the carrot excavated with soil to the conveying device 21. Is provided.

The carrots in rows A and B that could not be pulled out by the holding and conveying device 2 are left as they are for the time being and the operation is continued. Carrying out the carrots in the C row by the holding and conveying device 2 after the pulling out operation in the A row or the B row is completed, but at this time, the position of the A row or the B row is in the approximate center of the machine. Become. Therefore, the excavator 3 is lowered to dig up carrots with the soil. The row of carrots dug up by the digging device 3 is not limited to two rows as described above. That is, since it depends on the size of the harvester itself, there are cases where there is one article and cases where there are three or more articles.

The carrots in rows A and B, which could not be pulled out by the holding and conveying device 2, are moved by the forward movement of the machine body to cause the excavator 3 to move.
Is excavated together with the soil at, and then pushed up onto the guide body 22 and guided to the starting end portion of the transport device 21. The carrot guided to the starting end of the carrier device 21 is
The soil is transported on the transport device 21 toward the rearward belt conveyor 12 direction. During the transportation, the soil falls from the gap 21a onto the field below, so that the soil and the carrot are separated.

In this way, since the carrots that cannot be pulled out by the holding and conveying device 2 can be harvested and stored at the same time, it is not necessary to pick up carrots dug up later, and the labor is reduced and the work can be performed efficiently. Next, FIGS. 6 to 11 will be described. The carrots harvested in winter could not be harvested by the harvester provided with the holding and conveying device 2 as described above. This is because most of the carrot foliage 7 is dead in winter. Therefore, conventionally, a car digger was attached to the rear of a towing vehicle such as a tractor to dig up carrots. Thus, in winter, a towing vehicle such as a tractor is required in addition to a carrot-only harvesting machine, and the harvesting work is very inefficient in terms of cost. Therefore, in the following embodiment, a carrot-dedicated harvesting machine is used to dig up the dead carrots in the foliage portion 7 in winter to perform cost-effective harvesting work.

The working conditions shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 are such that the carrot planting strips planted in the ridges are dug up all at once. Therefore, the rear part of the chassis 5 (the end of the harvester)
The digging device 3 is installed in the. This eliminates the need for a tractor or the like and enables cost-effective harvesting work. Due to the engine horsepower of the carrot harvester, it may not be possible to dig up all the carrot planting lines in the ridge at once. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a digging device 3 having a narrow width for digging one or two minority articles of carrot planting articles is installed. As a result, even if the engine horsepower is low, carrots can be easily dug out.

10 and 11 show a structure in which the excavator 3 is movable in the lateral width direction of the machine body. The excavator 3 and the hydraulic cylinder 24 that moves the excavator 3 up and down are integrated together, and the chassis 5
The guide rails 23a and 23b provided in the above are moved. The guide rail 23a is the hydraulic cylinder 2
4 and the guide rail 23b supports the excavator 3. This movement is manual, and the operator may set it at an arbitrary position and fix it by pressing the digging tool 3 against the guide rail 23 with a bolt (not shown) or the like. Alternatively, it may be automatically moved by an electric motor or hydraulic pressure.

[0022]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it is not necessary to manually dig the root vegetables that could not be pulled out by the holding and conveying device 2 by using a hoe or the like, and the root vegetables can be digging as the machine progresses. Harvest efficiency is improved and wasteful time and labor are reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

Figure 1: Left side view of carrot harvester

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a carrot harvester.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram.

[Figure 4] Left side view of carrot harvester

FIG. 5: Plan view of carrot harvester

Fig. 6 Left side view of carrot harvester

FIG. 7: Plan view of carrot harvester

FIG. 8: Left side view of carrot harvester

FIG. 9: Top view of carrot harvester

FIG. 10: Left side view of carrot harvester

FIG. 11 is a plan view of a carrot harvester.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Root vegetable detecting means, 2 ... Holding conveyance apparatus, 2a ... Belt, 2b ... Belt, 3 ... Root vegetable digging means, 4 ... Traveling device, 5 ... Chassis, 6 ... Raising device, 7 ... Stover, 8 ...
Root part, 8a ... Head part, 9 ... Secondary transport device, 10 ... Cutter, 11 ... Operation part, 12 ... Belt conveyor, 13 ... Container, 14 ... Hydraulic cylinder, 15 ... Head alignment belt, 16
... Clamping belt, 17 ... Clamping belt, 18 ... Contact sensor, 19 ... Halogen light, 20 ... Filter, 21 ... Conveying device, 21a ... Gap, 22 ... Guide body, 23a ... Guide rail, 23b ... Guide rail, 24 ... Hydraulic cylinder, 1
00 ... Control device (CPU)

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Seiichi Arima 1 Yakura, Tobe-cho, Iyo-gun, Ehime Pref.Iseki Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A holding and conveying device 2 for holding and pulling out a foliage portion 7 of root vegetables, which is made up of a pair of left and right belts 2a, 2b, and carrying it backward and upward, and is pulled behind the holding and conveying device 2. Root vegetable detecting means 1 for detecting undisclosed root vegetables
And a root vegetable digging means 3 that descends in association with the detection of the root vegetable detecting means 1 and digs root vegetables together with soil.