JPH10316230A - Agricultural products supply device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To supply the agricultural products while automatically uniforming a supply amount of the agricultural, products to an after-process, by controlling a speed of a specific conveyor at a downstream side, on which a detecting means is mounted, among plural linked conveyors, so that the amount of the agricultural products to be supplied to the after-process from the specific conveyor at the downstream side, is almost uniformed. SOLUTION: A photographing area of an almost half at a downstream side, of a conveyor 3g of the most downstream side among the conveyors 3a-3g, is photographed by a photographing device 8. The rotating speeds of the motors 5a-5g of the conveyors 3a-3g are controlled on the basis of the photography data, and the conveying speed of the conveyors 3a-3g are properly adjusted on the basis of the amount of eggplants as the agricultural products, on the conveyor 3g. Whereby the conveying speeds of the conveyors 3a-3g are controlled corresponding to the amount of the eggplants on the conveyor 3g of the most downstream side, connected with an array conveyor 4, and the amount of the eggplants to be supplied to the after-process such as the array conveyor 4, a sorting conveyor 12 or the like from the conveyor 3g, can be uniformed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the production of agricultural products such as eggplants, carrots, cucumbers, apples, persimmons, tomatoes and mandarins.
It is related to a supply device for supplying to a processing device at a sorting place where it is collected and shipped.Specifically, the amount of agricultural products transported in piles from containers containing agricultural products brought by producers is made substantially uniform, The present invention relates to an agricultural product supply device that can be sent to a downstream processing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, agricultural products such as cucumber and eggplant harvested on a farm and stored in a container are discharged from the container to an upstream side of a plurality of conveyed conveyors, and the piles of the agricultural products are broken to eliminate overlap. A supply device for supplying the processing device on the downstream side is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-8-104420 and JP-A-8-208027.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, these supply devices 51 have a plurality of (seven in the figure) conveyers 52a to 52g, for example, belt conveyors connected to each other, and each of the conveyers 52a to 52g. 52g are provided with motors 53a to 53g, respectively, so that the transport speed can be set to a predetermined value.

[0004] The rotation speed of the motors 53a to 53g of each of the conveyors 52a to 52g is the former (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 8-
In the case of the supply apparatus 51 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 104420/104420, the speed is increased approximately twice toward the downstream conveyor, and in the case of the supply apparatus 51 of the latter (JP-A-8-208027), The speed is increased step by step.

[0005]

However, in these supply devices 51, the amount of the agricultural products W is transferred to the transport conveyors 52a to 52g, particularly the transport conveyor 52 on the most downstream side.
g, it is difficult to supply the product to a subsequent process, such as a sorting device, for example, and it is difficult to save labor for supplying the agricultural product W.

That is, a plurality of transport conveyors 52a-5a, which are speeded up about twice or stepwisely speeded up.
The agricultural products W discharged in a piled state from the container 54 (see FIG. 7) onto the transport conveyors 52a and 52b on the upstream side by the 2g transport are transported while being collapsed (averaged), but are moving. Since the agricultural products W are discharged onto the conveyors 52a and 52b, the amount of the agricultural products W between the peaks (the portion between the discharge from the container 54 and the discharge from the next container 54) tends to decrease. . as a result,
In the transport direction on the transport surfaces of the transport conveyors 52a to 52g, a coarse or dense state of the agricultural products W occurs in which the amount of the agricultural products W is large or small.

[0007] Further, even if the transport conveyors 52a to 52g are transported at a predetermined constant speed difference to make the landslide of the agricultural products W, the amount, shape and size of the agricultural products W stored in the container 54 can be improved. Depending on the surface condition, the packing method, and the like, the piled state and the collapse of the pile when discharged are different each time, but the pile collapse cannot be performed according to the state of the agricultural product W on the conveyor.

[0008] For these reasons, it is difficult to equalize the supply amount of the agricultural products W from the downstream conveyor 52g to the subsequent process, and the supply amount of the agricultural products W is manually aligned in order to achieve uniformity. It is a reality that it is uniformed, which hinders labor saving in supply work.

The present invention has been made in view of the circumstances as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an agricultural product supply apparatus capable of automatically equalizing and supplying an agricultural product supply amount to a subsequent process without relying on humans. To provide.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a large number of agricultural products supplied in a piled state can be transported at an increased speed as a whole. An agricultural product supply device that supplies a substantially uniform amount to a plurality of conveyed conveyors and supplies the same to a post-process.
Detecting means for detecting an increase or decrease in the amount of agricultural products on a predetermined conveying conveyor on the downstream side among the plurality of conveying conveyors, and controlling a conveying speed of the predetermined conveying conveyor on the downstream side based on data detected by the detecting means. And control means.

[0011] With this configuration, the agricultural products supplied in a piled state are collapsed by the plurality of transport conveyors connected so that the transport speed is increased as a whole. Then, an increase or decrease in the level of the agricultural product that has been flattened due to the collapse of the mountain is detected by the detection unit on the predetermined conveyor on the downstream side of the plurality of conveyors, and the data is sent to the control unit. The control means sets the speed of the predetermined conveying conveyor on the downstream side where the detecting means is installed on the basis of the data of the detecting means, and the amount of agricultural products supplied to the subsequent process from the predetermined conveying conveyor on the downstream side becomes substantially uniform. Control.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a large number of agricultural products supplied in a piled state are made into a substantially uniform amount by a plurality of transport conveyors connected in the transport direction, the transport speed of which can be changed, and used in a subsequent process. A supply device for supplying agricultural products, wherein a detecting means for detecting an increase / decrease state of agricultural products on a predetermined transport conveyor on a downstream side among a plurality of transport conveyors, and each transport conveyor based on data detected by the detecting means. Control means for controlling at least the transfer speed of the downstream transfer conveyor so that the transfer speed of the downstream transfer conveyor is not lower than the speed of the upstream transfer conveyor.

[0013] With this configuration, the agricultural products discharged in piles on the upstream side of the plurality of conveyed conveyors are collapsed and flattened while being conveyed by the conveyors having different speeds. , On the downstream conveyor where the detecting means is installed. The detecting means detects an increase / decrease state of, for example, the amount of agricultural products on the installed conveyor, and outputs the data to the control means. The control means controls the transport speed of each transport conveyor based on the data of the detection means so that the transport speed of the downstream transport conveyor is not slower than that of the upstream conveyor.

Thus, for example, when the amount of agricultural products on the downstream conveyor provided with the detection means is small,
The transport speed of each transport conveyor is set so that the transport speed of the downstream transport conveyor is not slower than that of the upstream side, and is higher than the transport speed at the time of detection, and the downstream transport where the detection means is installed. If the amount of agricultural products on the conveyor is large, the transport speed of each transport conveyor, the transport speed of the downstream transport conveyor is not slower than the upstream, and lower than the transport speed when detected, The amount of agricultural products supplied to the downstream process from a predetermined conveyor on the downstream side is made uniform.

As described above, the transport speed of the plurality of transport conveyors is set so as to increase the speed as a whole.
According to the increase / decrease state of the agricultural products on the predetermined conveyor on the downstream side of these conveyors, the conveying speed of the predetermined conveyor on the downstream side and the conveying speed of the conveyor on the upstream side are adjusted. The amount of agricultural products supplied from the predetermined conveyor on the downstream side to the subsequent process is automatically equalized, and clogging of agricultural products between the conveyors and unnecessary separating action are eliminated. . Therefore, manual alignment work or the like becomes unnecessary.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the detecting means has a photographing device for photographing a predetermined area of a predetermined conveying conveyor on a downstream side, and the control means analyzes and processes an image photographed by the photographing device. It is characterized in that the amount of agricultural products on the conveyor is calculated.

With this configuration, the state of increase or decrease in agricultural products on the conveyor is detected as image data by the photographing device, and the image data is analyzed (image processed) by the control device to calculate the amount of agricultural products. You. Then, the control device controls the speed of the transport conveyor according to the amount of the agricultural product, and equalizes the amount of the agricultural product supplied to the subsequent process.

The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the photographing device is constituted by an area type camera.
With this configuration, the state of the agricultural products between the mountains (coarse / dense state) from the state of the agricultural products in the predetermined area on the downstream side, for example, a half area on the downstream side thereof, is changed.
Can be reliably detected. Further, even if the agricultural product is a long product, the state of the agricultural product can be accurately detected regardless of its orientation.

The invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that the photographing device is configured to irradiate the agricultural product on the transport conveyor with infrared rays and detect image data by reflected light of the infrared rays. . With this configuration, the image information obtained by irradiating infrared rays has a high reflectance for agricultural products and a low property for black conveyors. Are clearly identified, and the state such as the presence or absence of the agricultural product on the conveyor can be reliably detected.

The invention according to claim 6 is characterized in that the control means controls the transfer speed of the transfer conveyor in a stepwise manner according to a predetermined division. With this configuration, it is possible to control the conveyors at different speed divisions, for example, low speed, medium speed, and high speed, and it is easy to control each conveyor by the control means. By setting the values, the amount of agricultural products supplied to the post-process can be further equalized according to the type of agricultural products.

The invention according to claim 7 is characterized in that the agricultural product is eggplant. With such a configuration, the eggplant, which is said to be difficult to automatically sort due to its color, shape, etc., can be supplied to a sorting device or the like in a later process after uniforming the amount thereof, and the automatic eggplant sorting operation can be performed. Will be possible.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5 show an embodiment of an agricultural product supply device according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a part of a sorting line using the supply device, FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of a main part in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of the control device, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation.

In FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, the supply device 1 includes seven conveyors 3a to 3g, each of which is a belt conveyor disposed on a base frame 2. This conveyor 3a
3g are connected in a straight line, and the respective conveyor belts run and rotate in the direction of arrow A which is the conveying direction by the operation of independently provided motors 5a to 5g. Each of the conveyor belts of the conveyors 3a to 3g is formed of, for example, black or a dark color and material that does not reflect infrared rays including near infrared rays as much as possible.

The agricultural supply unit 7 is provided on the two most upstream conveyors 3a and 3b of the conveyors 3a to 3g.
(See FIG. 2), and a photographing device 8 (see FIG. 1) is installed above the transport conveyor 3g located at the most downstream side.

The agricultural product supply section 7 is manually or manually supplied from a container 9 (see FIG. 1) containing the agricultural products W.
A large number of agricultural products W are discharged in a piled state by the damper device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 16916. Also, the photographing device 8
As shown in FIG. 3, an infrared ray is applied to a substantially half photographing area R on the downstream side of the conveyor 3g, and image data is obtained by receiving reflected light of the infrared ray as described later. I have.

An alignment conveyor 4 comprising a belt conveyor is connected to the lowermost one of the conveyors 3a to 3g. This alignment conveyor 4
Is rotated in the transport direction A at a constant transport speed of, for example, 20 m / min by a motor 6 driven under control different from that of the transport conveyors 3a to 3g. Note that the alignment conveyor 4 may be configured so that a plurality of units can be connected so that a smooth transfer can be performed in order to match the processing speed of the subsequent process. The agricultural products may be arranged in a certain direction or arranged in a line.

An orientation aligning device 10 is connected to the downstream side of the aligning conveyor 4. This orientation alignment device 10
Has a plurality of rollers 10a that can move a predetermined distance in the axial direction, and rotates the direction of the agricultural products W supplied from the alignment conveyor 4 substantially horizontally by relatively moving the front and rear rollers 10a in the axial direction. And feed it to the roller conveyor 11 connected to the downstream side.

In addition, on the downstream side of the roller conveyor 11,
A sorting conveyor 12 for placing the agricultural products W, the orientation of which is horizontal, one by one on a bucket 13 is connected.
Above the connection between the roller conveyor 11 and the sorting conveyor 12, a guide roller 14 having elasticity for guiding the agricultural products W from the roller conveyor 11 to the sorting conveyor 12 is rotatably arranged.

The motor 5a of the conveyors 3a to 3g
To 5g are connected to the control device 15 as shown in FIG. Hereinafter, FIG. 4 will be described.

On the input side of the control device 15, the photographing device 8
The imaging device 8 includes an infrared lamp 16 for irradiating infrared rays including near infrared rays having a wavelength in the range of 750 nanometers (nm) to 1 millimeter, and a reflected light of the infrared rays emitted from the infrared lamp 16. CCD camera 17 for receiving light, and A / D for converting an analog image signal received by CCD camera 17 into a digital image signal
It has a converter 18 and the like. Then, the A / D converter 18
The digital image signal (hereinafter, referred to as image data) converted in is output to the control device 15.

The control unit 15 includes input and output interfaces 19 and 20 (indicated by an input IF and an output IF in FIG. 4), a CPU 21, a ROM 22, a RAM 23, and an input unit 2.
4 and a display unit 25. The input interface 19 is connected to the imaging device 8 and outputs the image data input from the imaging device 8 to the CPU 21. Also,
The output interface 20 is provided for the conveyors 3a to 3g.
Is connected to a motor drive control unit 26 that can drive each of the motors 5a to 5g, and outputs a predetermined signal to the motor drive control unit 26 according to a control signal from the CPU 21.

The ROM 22 stores a program for executing a flowchart, which will be described later, and various tables such as a conveyor speed setting table.
21 temporarily stores the data subjected to the arithmetic processing, various conditions input by the input unit 24 and the like. Further, the CPU 21 converts the image data input via the input interface 19 into R
The arithmetic processing is performed according to the program of the OM 22, the processing result is temporarily stored in the RAM 23, and a predetermined signal is output through the output interface 20 to the motor drive control unit 2.
6 is output.

The input unit 24 has, for example, a numeric keypad, and inputs an area value S of a photographing area R to be photographed, an area division, a velocity division, and division values A and B, which will be described later, while watching the display on the display unit 25. Data is transferred to the CPU
21 and is temporarily stored in the RAM 23.

The motor drive control section 26 switches and sets the rotation speed (number of rotations) of each of the motors 5a to 5g of the conveyors 3a to 3g to, for example, a three-step speed in accordance with a control signal from the control device 15. The signals to be obtained are transmitted to each motor 5a to
Output to 5g. The motors 5a to 5g are constituted by, for example, inverter motors, and rotate at three stages of rotation speeds: low speed, medium speed, and high speed.

Next, an example of the operation of the supply device 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This flowchart is executed by the program stored in advance in the ROM 22 in the control device 15 as described above. When the power of each part of the supply device 1 is turned on and, for example, a start switch (not shown) of the control device 15 is turned on, the program starts (S100), and first, various conditions such as an area, a speed division, and a division value are set (S101). .

The condition setting in step 101 is as follows:
This is performed by the input unit 24 of the control device 15 in accordance with the instruction of the display unit 25. As shown in Table 1 below, the area division is set to 1
速度 3 are set, and the speed section is set to three sections of low speed, medium speed and high speed corresponding to each area section.

[0037]

[Table 1]

The speeds of the motors 5a to 5g of the conveyors 3a to 3g are set according to the three speed categories, for example, as shown in Table 2 below.

[0039]

[Table 2]

As is apparent from Table 2, the transport speed of the downstream conveyor is equal to or higher than the transport speed of the upstream conveyor at all of the low, medium, and high speeds. It is set so that it does not become slower, and is set to, for example, high-speed operation in the initial state. The transport speed of the alignment conveyor 4 always rotates at a constant transport speed (20 m / min) regardless of the three speed categories.

After setting the speed division and the like, the photographing device 8
The classification values A and B are set as shown in Table 3 below in order to determine the area divisions 1 to 3 of the agricultural products W in the photographing area R of the conveyor 3g photographed in the above. These classification values A and B
Is a determination value for determining the area division, and is set to a predetermined value of A> B.

[0042]

[Table 3]

The settings in Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3 are obtained, for example, from various tables stored in the ROM 22 in advance.
An appropriate table is read by the CPU 21 in accordance with the input area division number and the type of the agricultural product W.
The data can be set to a desired value by inputting data such as the number of area divisions and the rotation speed of each of the motors 5a to 5g from the input unit 24 using keys.

When various conditions are set, it is determined whether or not the conveyors 3a to 3g have been driven (S102).
Is done. This determination S102 is made based on, for example, whether or not a drive signal has been output from the motor drive control unit 26 to each of the motors 5a to 5g.
S ", that is, until the conveyors 3a to 3g are driven.

If "YES" is determined in the judgment S102, the eggplant discharged from the container 9 into the agricultural product supply section 7 of the conveyors 3a and 3b in a pile state is transferred to the conveyors 3a to 3b.
By the high-speed operation of g, the mountain is collapsed while being transported along the transport conveyors 3a to 3f along the transport direction A, and the transport is carried downstream. Then, when the eggplant is transported to a position on the transport conveyor 3g, the eggplant in the photographing area R is captured by the photographing device 8
The CPU 21 reads this image data (S103). Note that the imaging device 8 is configured to continuously scan at predetermined time intervals.

When reading the image data, the CPU 21 performs pre-processing such as passing the read image data through a filter (not shown), and then binarizes the pre-processed image data (S104) to obtain "0" and "1". Is converted to binary data. When the image data is converted into binary data, the eggplant area value S1 is calculated (S105). This area value S1 is calculated by counting the number of the data "1" when the portion corresponding to the eggplant photographed by the photographing device 8 is binarized as, for example, "1". The calculated area value S1 is calculated.

When the area value S1 of the eggplant is calculated in step S105, it is determined whether or not the area value S1 is equal to or larger than the section value A in order to determine the area section, that is, the speed section (S10).
106). If “YES” in this determination, the CP
A low-speed operation signal G1 is output from U21 to the motor drive control unit 26 via the output interface 20 (S108).

According to the low-speed operation signal G1, the motor drive control unit 26 sends the motors 5a to 5g at the speeds shown in the upper part of Table 2 (for example, 1.5 m / min for the motor 5c and 3 m / min for the motor 5f). Is output, and the motors 5a to 5g rotate at a predetermined rotation speed (low speed). Therefore, the motors 5a to 5g that are operating at high speed in the initial stage are switched from high speed operation to low speed operation.

On the other hand, if "NO" in the judgment S106,
It is determined whether the calculated area value S1 is equal to or larger than the classification value B (S1
07). If the determination is “YES”, the medium speed operation signal G2 is output to the motor drive control unit 26 (S109).
Each motor 5 is adjusted so that the speed shown in the middle row of Table 2 is obtained.
a to 5 g rotate at medium speed. Also, in the judgment S107, “N
In the case of "O", the high-speed operation signal G3 is output (S110), and the motors 5a
５5 g rotate at high speed.

That is, when the area value S1 indicating the amount of eggplant is calculated in step 105, this area value S1 is compared with two preset division values A and B (where A> B), and the area value is calculated. When the value S1 is equal to or larger than A (A ≦ S1), the low speed operation signal G1 is output, and the area value S1 is between A and B (B ≦ S
If 1 <A), the medium speed operation signal G2 is output, and if the area value S1 is smaller than B (B> S1), the high speed operation signal G3 is output.

That is, when the amount of eggplant in the photographing area R is larger than the sorting value A, the speed of the lowermost conveyor 3g is reduced, and the eggplant sent out from the conveyor 3g to the downstream alignment conveyor 4 is reduced. And the speed of the conveyors 3a to 3f upstream of the conveyor 3g is the same as or slower than the initial state, and the eggplants are clogged on the conveyors 3a to 3f on the upstream side. Work around.

Conversely, when the amount of eggplant in the photographing area R is smaller than the sorting value B, the lowermost conveyor 3g
And the amount of eggplants sent out from the conveyor 3g to the alignment conveyor 4 is uniformly controlled. In this case, also in this case, the upstream conveyors 3a to 3f
The speed of the eggplant on the upstream conveyors 3a to 3f is controlled to be the same as or faster than the initial state.

At this time, the transport conveyor 3 on the most downstream side
g and each of the conveyors 3a to 3f on the upstream side are set so that the upstream side of the adjacent conveyors is slower or the same as the downstream side, and the downstream side is not slower than the upstream side. Problems such as the eggplant colliding with the downstream eggplant and causing damage or clogging of the eggplant are prevented.

When the speeds of the motors 5a to 5g are determined in Steps 105 to 110 and the motors are operated for a predetermined time, it is determined whether or not the conveyors 3a to 3g have stopped (S11).
1) is done. This determination S111 is also made in the motor drive control unit 2
6 to determine whether or not a drive signal is output to each of the motors 5a to 5g. If "NO" in this determination S111, that is, if the transport conveyors 3a to 3g continue to operate, the process returns to step 103, Step 103 and subsequent steps are repeated in the same manner as described above.

Steps S103 and S11
In the repetition operation between the two, the imaging device 8 generally has a high resolution, so that image data can be obtained at extremely short intervals.
As a result of the high-speed processing of 1, the rotational speed of each of the motors 5a to 5g is controlled to be switched at a high speed in three stages of low speed, medium speed and high speed according to the amount of eggplant. Then, when "YES" is determined in the determination S111, that is, when all the conveyors 3a to 3g are stopped, a series of programs is ended (S112).

In this flowchart, the area division and the corresponding velocity division are set in three divisions to control the motors 5a to 5g of the respective conveyors 3a to 3g. It is also possible to set the section to two or four or more sections, and set the speed corresponding to each section.

In this flowchart, the total area value S1 (amount) of each eggplant was calculated by counting the number of binary data corresponding to the eggplant in the photographing area R on the conveyor 3g. For example, the area value of the eggplant may be calculated from the binary data of the portion where the eggplant is not placed, or an appropriate calculation method such as estimating the amount of the eggplant from the image data of a specific region in the photographing area R. Can be adopted.

Further, in the above flowchart,
The speeds of the motors 5a to 5g of the conveyors 3a to 3g are controlled based on image data of one photographing device 8 based on a preset speed setting table.
May be installed at predetermined intervals, and the speed of the upstream conveyors 3a to 3g photographed by each photographing device 8 may be finely controlled based on the image data of each photographing device 8.

As described above, in the supply device 1 of the above embodiment, the photographing device 8 photographs the photographing area R substantially half of the downstream side of the conveyor 3g located at the most downstream side of the conveyors 3a to 3g. The photographed image data is binarized by the control device 15 to calculate an area value S1 of the whole eggplant in the photographing area R, and compare the area value S1 with preset division values A and B. In order to determine the area division and to control the rotation speed of each of the motors 5a to 5g of the conveyors 3a to 3g according to the speed division corresponding to this area division, each conveyance is performed according to the amount of eggplant on the conveyor 3g. The transport speed of the conveyors 3a to 3g can be adjusted appropriately.

As a result, depending on the amount of eggplant on the lowermost transport conveyor 3g connected to the alignment conveyor 4, this transport conveyor 3g and the upstream transport conveyor 3g
The transport speeds a to 3f can be controlled, and the amount of eggplant supplied from the transport conveyor 3g to the post-process such as the alignment conveyor 4 and the sorting conveyor 12 can be made uniform.

Particularly, as shown in Tables 1 and 2, the motors 5a to 5g are configured to be controllable in three stages of low speed, medium speed and high speed. The speed can be set to an optimum speed according to the amount of W, and since the transport speed on the downstream side is set not to be slower than that on the upstream side, scratches and the like due to collision between eggplants are prevented, and The supplied eggplant can be supplied in a more uniform and favorable state.

Further, since the photographing area R of the photographing device 8 is set at a position substantially half of the downstream side of the conveyor 3g, the amount of eggplant peaks which is likely to be generated when discharging from the container 9 is also small. Can be detected, the conveyor 3a ~
The coarse and dense state of eggplant on 3 g can be detected. Also,
An infrared lamp 16 that can irradiate infrared rays including near-infrared rays, which have a high reflectance for eggplants (agricultural products W) and a low reflectance for black conveyors, is used for the photographing device 8. CCD camera 17 that can accurately receive light
Is used, it is possible to obtain image data in which the transport belt of the transport conveyor 3g and the eggplant can be clearly identified.

From the above, the amount of eggplant on the conveyor 3g can be detected with high accuracy, and the speed of the conveyor 3g and the conveyors 3a to 3f can be controlled in accordance with the amount. The amount of eggplant supplied from the alignment conveyor 4 to the roller conveyor 11 and the sorting conveyor 12 can be made more uniform. Then, by making the supply amount of the eggplant uniform, for example, the eggplant can be reliably stored one by one in each bucket 13 of the sorting conveyor 12 constituting the sorting device, and the filling rate of the eggplant into the sorting device can be increased. Becomes possible.

Further, since the eggplant can be made uniform and supplied to the subsequent process, the manual operation of arranging the eggplant becomes unnecessary, and the operation of supplying the eggplant to the sorting apparatus can be fully automated. Labor saving in supply work can be achieved.

In the above embodiment, as means for detecting the amount of eggplant on the conveyor 3g,
Although the image data is obtained by the photographing device 8 using infrared rays, the state detection according to the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a load cell is disposed below the conveyor belt of the conveyor 3g, and the conveyor belt is disposed. The amount of eggplant on the conveyor 3g is detected by measuring the load due to the weight of the eggplant added to the conveyor 3g, and the conveyor 3g and the conveyors 3a to 3a-3 are detected based on the detected data.
Appropriate detection means can be adopted as the configuration of the detection means such as controlling the transport speed of f.

In the above-described embodiment, the photographing area R, which is approximately half of the most downstream transport conveyor 3g, is set in the photographing device 8.
The shooting area R
A smaller area may be photographed, or an area larger than the photographing area R may be photographed. The size of the photographing area R is appropriately set according to the size of the transport conveyor 3g or the eggplant. Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the agricultural product W is eggplant has been described, but the present invention relates to ginseng, cucumbers,
It can be applied to various agricultural products W such as vegetables such as tomatoes and fruits such as apples, persimmons and mandarins.

Further, the number of connected conveyors and the form thereof in the above embodiment, the line configuration of the alignment conveyor and the direction alignment device connected to the conveyor, the configuration of the control device, the photographing device, and the like are also examples. It goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of each invention.

[0068]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the detected transport speed of the transport conveyor is controlled based on the detection of the increase / decrease state of the flattened agricultural products. The amount of agricultural products to be supplied to the post-process can be made uniform, and the supply operation can be automated.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, the transport conveyor in which the increase / decrease state of the agricultural products is detected and each of the upstream conveyors are controlled, so that the amount of the agricultural products to be supplied to the subsequent process is made uniform. It is possible to avoid troubles such as collision and clogging of agricultural products on each upstream conveyor.

According to the third and fourth aspects of the present invention,
Irrespective of the direction and shape of the agricultural product on the conveyor, the coarse and dense state of the agricultural product can be accurately detected. According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to reliably cut out the agricultural product on the transport surface by using the infrared light image. According to the sixth aspect of the invention, speed control can be performed quickly and easily.
From eggplant supply to sorting, which is said to be difficult to sort automatically depending on the shape and surface condition, can be automated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a part of a sorting line using an agricultural product supply device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view of a main part of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of the control device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the control device.

FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view of a main part of a conventional agricultural product supply device.

FIG. 7 is a side view of the same.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ····· Supply device 3a to 3g ··· Conveyor 4 ····· Alignment conveyor 5a to 5g ··· Motor 6 ····· Motor 7 ···· ··· Agricultural product supply section 8 ···· Photographing device 9 ·························································· Roller conveyor 12 ······ Sorting conveyor 13 Bucket 15 Controller 16 Infrared lamp 17 CCD camera 21 CPU 26 ..Motor drive control unit R ........ Photographing area W ......... Agricultural products

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A large number of agricultural products supplied in a piled state,
An agricultural product supply device that supplies a substantially uniform amount to a plurality of transport conveyors that are connected so that the transport speed is increased as a whole and supplies the same to a post-process, and a predetermined downstream side of the plurality of transport conveyors. Detecting means for detecting an increase / decrease state of agricultural products on the transport conveyor, and control means for controlling a transport speed of the predetermined downstream transport conveyor based on data detected by the detection means. Agricultural products supply equipment. 2. A large number of agricultural products supplied in a piled state,
An agricultural product supply device that supplies a substantially uniform amount of a plurality of transport conveyors connected in a transport direction in which a transport speed is variable and is supplied to a subsequent process, wherein a predetermined transport conveyor on the downstream side of the plurality of transport conveyors Detecting means for detecting the increase or decrease state of agricultural products above, the transport speed of each transport conveyor based on the data detected by this detecting means, at least the transport speed of the downstream conveyor is higher than the speed of the upstream conveyor. Control means for controlling so as not to be delayed. 3. The detecting means has a photographing device for photographing a predetermined area of a predetermined conveying conveyor on the downstream side, and the control means analyzes and processes an image photographed by the photographing device to produce agricultural products on the conveying conveyor. The agricultural product supply device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the amount is calculated. 4. The agricultural product supply device according to claim 3, wherein said photographing device is constituted by an area type camera. 5. The imaging device according to claim 3, wherein the photographing device is configured to irradiate the agricultural product on the transport conveyor with infrared rays and detect image data by reflected light of the infrared rays. Produce supply equipment. 6. The agricultural product supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means controls the transport speed of the transport conveyor stepwise according to a predetermined section. . 7. The agricultural product supply device according to claim 1, wherein the agricultural product is eggplant.