JPS6244885B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is designed to automatically perform aircraft direction change operations sequentially according to a plurality of pre-programmed steps.
This invention relates to a mobile agricultural machine equipped with an automatic direction change control mechanism that controls a mechanism for machine direction and a gear lever that controls forward/backward switching, and which enables arbitrary machine direction correction even during automatic direction change. This was designed to allow the aircraft to change direction appropriately.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below based on illustrative drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a side view of a combine harvester, which is an example of a mobile agricultural machine, and FIG. 2 shows a schematic plan view of its front part and running part. In the figure, 1, 1 is a pair of left and right crawler traveling devices, 2... is a pulling device, 3 is a reaping device, 4 is a lateral conveying device that conveys multiple rows of harvested grain culms laterally to the center and merges them, 5 is a merging device 6 is a threshing device, 7 is a feed chain, and 8 is a waste straw processing device.

The crawler traveling devices 1, 1 are arranged on both sides of the mission case 9 as shown in FIG. The steering clutches 10, 10 are configured to be driven by a pair of single acting hydraulic cylinders 12, 12 which are controlled by an electromagnetic control valve 11. The electromagnetic control valve 11 is connected via a control circuit 13 to stem culm contact sensors S ₁ , S ₂ , S ₃ provided at the front of the machine, and is used for row mowing (reaping along grain culm rows).
When traveling, the valve 11 is activated in response to the detection of the swinging displacement of the sensors S ₁ and S ₂ so as to guide the planted grain culm between a pair of sensors S ₁ and S ₂ that are arranged opposite to each other at the uncut end of the mowing width. The machine is controlled to steer the machine, and during horizontal cutting (cutting in a direction crossing the rows of grain culms), a sensor S ₃ installed at the end of the already cut side of the cutting width is used to control the direction of the planted grain culms. It is configured to control the valve 11 in accordance with the detection of the amount of rocking displacement of this sensor _S3 so as to follow and contact the plant at the end of the most cut side. The vehicle is configured to perform automatic steering that follows.

The transmission case 9 also includes a hydraulic continuously variable transmission HST which is connected to the engine E and is capable of forward and reverse rotation.
14, and its input shaft 15 is equipped with a rotation speed detector 16. Further, the shift lever 17 of the transmission device 14 is equipped with a detection mechanism 18 for detecting the shift position, and the lever 17 is connected to the shift drive motor 20 via a friction mechanism 19.
It is configured such that it can perform any manual speed change operation, and can also be automatically operated by the motor 20, which is drive-controlled via the speed change drive circuit 21.

In the present invention, the automatic steerable combine harvester as described above is further equipped with the following automatic turning mechanism.

The aircraft has a compass 2 that detects the absolute direction of the aircraft.
2 is installed via a support 23. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the structure of this compass 22 is based on a vertical output shaft 25 of a motor 24 driven at a constant speed.
A disk 26 made of a non-magnetic material is attached to the disk 26, and a geomagnetic intensity detection mechanism 27 equipped with a magnetic flux lens and a Hall element is attached horizontally to the disk 26. Furthermore, near the periphery of the disk 26, a fixed rotational phase angle pitch is installed. A small hole 28 . A photoelectric pulse generating mechanism 31 (hereinafter referred to as a position pulse generating mechanism) facing the small hole 30 is provided, thereby forming a compass using geomagnetism. Incidentally, both the pulse generating mechanisms 29 and 31
is arranged at the position shown in FIG. 4 with respect to the forward position F of the fuselage in plan view.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the outline of the automatic turning control mechanism, and part A in the diagram is the magnetic compass 2.
2, the angle pulse generation mechanism 29, position pulse generation mechanism 31, and geomagnetic strength detection mechanism 27 are integrated into a counting circuit 32, a counting circuit gate control circuit 33, an azimuth detection pulse generation circuit 34, and an azimuth conversion circuit 35. Connected as shown.

The angular pulse generating mechanism 29 always generates a constant periodic pulse as shown in FIG. 7A, which is used as a clock pulse. An output signal shown in FIG. 6B is obtained from the geomagnetic strength detection mechanism 27. In this embodiment, since the disk 26 is rotated clockwise, the positive peak point N is northward, the negative peak point S is southward, and the turning point E from positive to negative is
is determined as east position, and the turning point W from negative to positive is determined as west position. The direction detection pulse generation mechanism 34 outputs the signal shown in FIG. The sixth pulse from the position detection pulse generating mechanism 31 is
As shown in Figure 2, one pulse is emitted only at a fixed position relative to the aircraft. The gate control circuit 33 includes a J-K flip-flop, and its J terminal input signal and K terminal input signal are shown in FIG. 6 (E) and (F). As is clear from the figure, the J terminal input signal E is based on the rising edge of the direction detection pulse C, and the K terminal input signal H is based on the rising edge of the position detection pulse D. As a result, the output signal shown in FIG. 6G is obtained from the JK flip-flop, and the inverted signal shown in FIG. 6H is transmitted to the counting circuit 32 as a gate control signal.

The counting circuit 32 operates in the 0 range of the gate control signal H, and counts the number of clock pulses (8 pulses in the embodiment) during which the aircraft position detection pulse is emitted from the east position E every time the disk 26 rotates once. . Also, in the direction conversion circuit 35, the counting circuit 32
It is configured to calculate the aircraft's absolute bearing relative to the ground from the pulse count value at .

Next, an automatic rotation control mechanism using the magnetic compass 22 will be explained.

The orientation conversion circuit 35 is connected to a storage circuit 36 and a deviation calculation circuit 37, and uses the detected orientation stored in the storage circuit 36 as a reference orientation, and uses this circuit 37 to calculate the deviation between this reference orientation and the actual detected orientation. It is configured like this. And this arithmetic circuit 37
However, the program control circuit 3 for rotation at the desired angle
8 are connected, and the valve control circuit 13 and the speed change drive circuit 21 are configured to be operated by commands from the program control circuit 38. Further, the memory circuit 36 is connected to a grain culm presence/absence detection sensor _S4 provided near the end of the horizontal conveyance device 9,
When the absence of grain culms is detected, the detection direction at that time is memorized. Further, the rotation speed detector 16 of the mission case input shaft 15 is also connected to the program control circuit 38.

Furthermore, the program control circuit 38 and the speed change drive circuit 21 include a button switch 3 provided in the control section.
A start command circuit 40 operated by 9 is connected thereto.

Next, the automatic direction change operation with the above configuration will be explained.

Figure 7 shows the process of cutting the planted grain culm group B along its outer periphery, so-called circular mowing.The direction change of the machine at this time involves straight traveling processes a and c and rotation at a set angle. It is set in advance in the program control circuit 34 as a combination of strokes b and d.

(n) Reaping travel process Automatic follow-up travel using sensors S ₁ , S ₂ , and S ₃ is performed.

(a) First step of machine direction change When the machine leaves the planted grain culm group B, sensor S ₄ detects the absence of grain culms, and from this point on, the input shaft 15
When the gear shift lever 17 is driven a preset number of times, the gear shift lever 17 is automatically operated to neutral. That is, when the mowing operation is completed, the machine moves straight for a certain distance and is once automatically stopped, and after the machine is stopped, the speed change lever 17 can be freely operated. Also, based on the detection of the absence of grain culms by the sensor _S4 , the aircraft detection direction at this point in time is stored.

(b) Second stroke of aircraft direction change Next, when the switch 39 of the start command circuit 40 is turned on, the speed change drive circuit 21 is activated and the speed change lever 17 is automatically operated to the preset forward position for rotation. At the same time, the valve control circuit 13 is activated and only the left steering clutch 12 is disengaged, and the aircraft rotates to the left and moves forward. In this rotation stroke,
The deviation between the azimuth detected from time to time by the compass 22 and the stored reference azimuth is calculated by the deviation calculation circuit 37 and compared with a preset desired turning angle. Then, when the direction is changed to the left from the reference direction by a set angle (for example, 45 degrees), shift lever 1 is turned.
7 is automatically operated to the neutral stop position and becomes freely operable.

(c) 3rd stroke of aircraft direction change Next, when the switch 39 is turned on again, the gear shift lever 17 is automatically operated to the preset reverse shift position for rotation, and the gear shift lever 17 is automatically operated to the preset reverse gear position for rotation, and The aircraft moves straight backward while maintaining its attitude.
Further, counting of the number of rotations of the input shaft 15 is started from the time when the reverse movement is started, and the straight-back movement is maintained until the counting of the preset value is completed, and when the counting is completed, the gear shift lever 17 is automatically operated again to the neutral stop position. After that, it becomes free operation state.

(d) 4th stroke of aircraft direction change When the switch 39 is turned on again, the right steering clutch 12 is disengaged and the aircraft shifts to reverse and clockwise rotation. or,
At the same time, the desired turning angle for reverse clockwise rotation is newly set, the deviation between the reference heading and the actual detected heading is compared moment by moment, and when the direction is changed by the set angle (for example, 90°), the gear shift lever is 17 is automatically operated to the neutral stop position and then becomes in a free operation state.

This completes one automatic rotation. Then, the operator manually operates the speed change lever 17 to switch to forward movement and move on to the next automatic follow-up reaping travel stroke e.

At the end of each of the above strokes, the gear shift lever 17 is in a neutral stop position and can be freely operated, so if the machine movement trajectory changes due to the influence of unevenness or hardness of the field, it will be inconvenient for the subsequent automatic direction change stroke. If it is confirmed that this will occur, the operator freely operates the speed change lever 17 to control the aircraft and correct the movement of the aircraft to a position and direction deemed appropriate. Then, by turning on the switch 39 of the start command circuit 40, the next step is started.

As described in detail in the embodiments above, in the mobile agricultural machine with an automatic direction change control mechanism of the present invention, when it is detected that each stroke for changing the direction of the machine body is completed, the speed change lever is automatically moved to the neutral stop position. After being restored, it becomes a free operation state, and this state is maintained until the start command circuit that controls the start of the next stroke is manually operated. Even if the position or orientation of the aircraft becomes inappropriate depending on field conditions during automatic direction change operation, you can freely correct the position or orientation by freely operating the gear shift lever after completing any stroke. It became possible to carry out the subsequent automatic direction change process appropriately and to accurately perform the desired direction change overall.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings illustrate embodiments of the mobile agricultural machine according to the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is an overall side view of the combine harvester, Fig. 2 is a schematic plan view showing the front part of the machine and the running section, and Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section of the magnetic compass. Front view, Figure 4 is a plan view of the magnetic compass, Figure 5 is a block diagram of the automatic direction change control mechanism, Figures 6-1 are signal waveform diagrams of each part of the control circuit, and Figure 7 is the automatic direction change diagram. It is a schematic plan view showing a conversion route. 10... Mechanism for steering, 17... Gear shift lever, 40... Starting command circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Automatic direction change that controls the mechanism 10, 10 for aircraft direction and the gear shift lever 17 that controls forward/backward switching so that the aircraft direction change operation is automatically performed sequentially according to a plurality of preprogrammed strokes. In a mobile agricultural machine equipped with a control mechanism, when it is detected that each process for changing the direction of the machine is completed,
After the speed change lever 17 is automatically returned to the neutral stop position, it enters a free operation state, and this state is maintained until a start command circuit 40 that controls the start of the next stroke is manually operated. A mobile agricultural machine with an automatic direction change control mechanism.