JPS63196213A - Moving type hydroponic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a mobile hydroponic cultivation device, specifically, a cultivation bed (or plant body) is placed in a cultivation tank from sowing (or planting) to harvesting. This invention relates to a device for cultivating plants while sequentially moving them along the same path.

[Conventional technology]

In hydroponics, proper spacing between plants is necessary to maximize plant growth and yield. In other words, if they are planted too densely, growth will be poor and the yield will be low as a result. However, if cultivation is done with appropriate plant spacing from the beginning of cultivation, the cultivation area efficiency will be low while the plants are small at the beginning of cultivation, and a large cultivation tank area will be required, which in turn will require a large number of greenhouses and cultivation equipment. This makes it uneconomical.

Therefore, if the plant spacing can be adjusted appropriately depending on the growth stage of the plant, the area utilization efficiency will increase. That is, as the plants grow, it is necessary to widen the spacing between plants.

Conventionally, an automatic cultivation bed spacing expanding device has been developed as a device that meets the above requirements, and specific examples thereof are shown in Figs.
There is one shown in FIG.

In this device, a cultivation bed 33 is grabbed, adsorbed, or hooked by an arm 31 attached to a gate-shaped lifting/moving device 51 running on a rail 52, and then the cultivation bed 33 is moved to a predetermined position by the lifting/moving device 51. The distance between cultivation beds is automatically expanded by controlling the movement.

In addition, in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, 32 is a driving motor, 34 is a cultivation tank, 35 is a control box, and 67
is a driving wheel, 69 is an electric cylinder, and 70 is a driven wheel.

Also, in FIG. 11, points ASB, C, D, and E.

F... indicates a predetermined position where the cultivation bed 33 (or plant body) should be placed in the cultivation tank 34, and the distance between each of the above positions is such that the cultivation bed interval increases with the growth of the plant. Distance is set.

In other words, the size relationship of the cultivation bed spacing is AB<BC<CD<
DE<EF, and each cultivation bed 33 is from A to B-4C.
It is configured to be cultivated while moving and stopping in the order of →D→E→.

Next, the block diagram of the elevating/moving device 51 is shown in the twelfth block diagram.
As shown in the figure, 61 is a rotary encoder, 62 is a pulse counter, 63 is a moving distance calculation device, 64 is a control device, 65 is a speed control device, 66 is a drive device, and 68 is an electric cylinder control device.

Therefore, to explain the operation of this elevating/moving device, (11) the elevating/moving device 51 moves backward on the rail 52 and moves to a predetermined deceleration position P by the rotary encoder 61, pulse counter 62, and moving distance calculating device 63. When the point is detected, the speed control device 65 decelerates the drive device 66. As a result, the drive wheels 67 also decelerate, and the vehicle continues to move backward at a very slow speed.

+21 When a predetermined stopping point, for example, point D, is detected by the rotary encoder 61, pulse counter 62, and moving distance calculation device 63 at the same m, the driving wheel 67 is stopped by the same action as described above.

(3) Next, the electric cylinder control device ff168 operates the electric cylinder 69 to grip the cultivation bed 33.

(4) Next, in order to advance the elevating/moving device 51 to point E, the speed control bag W1.65, the drive device 66, and the drive wheels 67 are activated forward.

That is, the elevating/moving device 51 moves forward on the rail 52, decelerates at a predetermined position by the same action as +11.(2) above, and then stops at the predetermined position ffE point.

(5) After the stop, the electric cylinder control device 68 operates the electric cylinder 69 to open the cultivation bed 33.

(6) Retract the lifting/moving bag rI151 again, and proceed as follows.
The cultivation bed 33 of point 0 is moved to point D in the same manner as above.

In this way, ■ The cultivation bed at point E moves to point F, ■ The cultivation bed at point D moves to point E, ■ The cultivation bed with 0 points moves to point D, ■ The cultivation bed at point B moves to point 0, ■ The cultivation bed at point A moves to point B, Elevating, lowering, and moving operations are performed in this order.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, with such a lifting/moving device, it is not possible to freely increase or decrease the number of lofts or the size of the spacing between adjacent cultivation beds, since different types of plants have different growth days and different degrees of growth. is necessary.

However, in the conventional example, each cultivation bed straddles the opposite wall of the cultivation tank! 3! Since there is a difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the rail and the opposite wall of the cultivation tank, when the environmental temperature changes, a specific point on the rail and a specific point on the opposite wall, that is, the edge of the cultivation bed. There was a problem in that the rails were misaligned in the longitudinal direction between the rails and the mounting section, and the cultivation bed could not be gripped even if the lifting/moving device was moved to an appropriate position.

In addition, in the conventional example, a row encoder 61 is applied as a position detection device of the lifting/moving device 51, and this detects the position and determines the grasping position of the cultivation bed, the distance to be moved, etc.
Since the stopping position etc. is set, the degree of freedom is significantly expanded compared to positioning using a rim switch, and the above requirements can be met to a certain extent.
There were also the following problems.

In other words, the low-return encoder may slip on the rail, the coefficient of thermal expansion may be different from that of the rail, or the environment (temperature and humidity) when operating the lifting/moving device may be different. Place W by low reencoder
An error may occur in the J6 output and it may deviate from the predetermined position, and if the reciprocating movement is repeated and the total movement distance is several hundred meters, an error of several effl will occur in the end, and it will still be difficult to grip the cultivation bed. In such cases, it must be manually corrected each time, and it does not have sufficient accuracy as a device for automatically expanding the spacing between cultivation beds, and cannot fully satisfy the above conventional requirements. There wasn't.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the mobile hydroponic cultivation device of the present invention places the ends of each cultivation bed astride mutually opposing rails for the movement of the lifting and moving device. A combination of a barcode array and a barcode reader is applied as a position detection device for a mobile device.

That is, the present invention arranges a large number of cultivation beds in a cultivation tank, lays a rail along the opposite wall of the cultivation tank, and disposes a device for lifting and lowering the cultivation bed so that it can run astride the rail. In a hydroponic cultivation device that cultivates while moving the cultivation bed a predetermined distance from a sowing side to a harvesting side by operating a lifting/moving device to gradually expand the interval between the cultivation beds as the seeds grow, A barcode row is displayed on one of the rails, and a barcode reader is provided at an appropriate position on the lifting/moving device, This is a mobile hydroponic cultivation apparatus characterized in that the lifting/lowering/moving/expanding device is moved and stopped at a predetermined position on the rail in response to a signal.

In addition, the present invention arranges a large number of cultivation beds in a cultivation tank, lays a rail along the opposite wall of the cultivation tank, and disposes a device for lifting and lowering the cultivation bed so that it can run astride the rails. In a hydroponic cultivation device that cultivates while moving the cultivation bed a predetermined distance from a sowing side to a harvesting side by operating a lifting/moving device to gradually expand the interval between the cultivation beds as the seeds grow, The edge of the cultivation bed is placed on the end of the cultivation bed, and a bar code row is displayed on a long body that is provided almost parallel to the rail and has the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the rail, and a bar is placed at an appropriate position on the lifting/moving device. The mobile hydroponic cultivation apparatus is characterized in that a code reader is provided, and the elevating and moving device is moved and stopped at a predetermined position on the rail by a signal from the bar code reader.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 to 9. Lifting/moving device 1 as an automatic cultivation bed spacing expanding device
The external appearance is as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 2 shows the right half of its front view, and this elevating/moving device is configured symmetrically in the same figure, with a rail 21 provided above the cultivation tank 3 shown in FIGS. 3 to 5. , 2□.

That is, the opposing walls 3+, 3 of the cultivation tank 3 are rectangular in plan view.
*Along with rails 2. having an inverted T-shaped cross section and having mutually equal coefficients of thermal expansion; ．． 2□ is laid and multiple cultivation beds 4
, 4... are placed astride these two rails via their left and right end plates 4+, 4g. These rails 2. ．． 2° is dli type w45. , 5□ to a concrete block 6 fixed to the ground. The lifting/moving device 1, when viewed as shown in FIG. 2, has a gate-shaped structure and can run astride the two rails.

Further, a barcode display member 7, which is a long strip (a rod or a tube may be used) displaying a barcode row and having the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the rail, is provided near the upper end of the lifting/moving device 1 and above the rail. It is fixedly provided to the rail in parallel with the rail via the support member 8 and the groove w45I. Of course, this barcode display member 7 may be directly attached to another fixing member without using the channel steel 51s support member 8.

In addition, the lifting/moving device li! The drive wheel 1 is in the upper part of l.
a motor as a drive device 16 for rotating 7;
Barcode reader 1 for reading the barcode string on barcode display member 7 and transmitting a predetermined signal to related devices
1 is disposed at the lower part of the moving device 1, a gripping member 19 for raising and lowering the cultivation bed 4 via an electric cylinder 18.
is provided.

In addition, in FIGS. 1 to 3, 16. and 17° is a sprocket wheel, and 16□ is a chain.

The materials of the rails 21, 2i and the barcode display member 7 are not particularly limited, but it is preferable to use the same iron material (in the illustrated example, steel strip), and the barcode rows are arranged on the rails. However, in order to display the barcode row on the rail, the end plate 4. or 4ziLi side), it is preferable to have one piece over the entire length of the rail, but if the unit length of the rail and the barcode display member are equal A plurality of barcode display members may be arranged in series. Furthermore, it is convenient to prepare various barcode display members with different barcode rows and to enable replacement and attachment of these members. Note that if barcodes are displayed on rails, the rails may get dirty with dust and the barcodes may not be able to be read accurately, so it is best to display them on something separate from the rails, as shown in this example. preferable.

In any case, it is sufficient to have one set of a barcode reader and one displaying a barcode array.
Multiple combinations (in the illustrated example, there are two combinations of barcode display member 7 and barcode reader)
By providing this, it is possible to make a lifting/moving device applicable to various plants.

Said rail 2. ．． 2g, barcode display material? Since the configuration and arrangement relationship of the cultivation bed 4 and the cultivation bed 4 are specified as above, when a temperature change occurs, the rail and the barcode display member expand and contract as one, and in accordance with this expansion and contraction. The cultivation bed also moves integrally with the rail in the longitudinal direction of the rail. Therefore, no matter how the environmental temperature changes, the relative positions of the rail, barcode display member, and cultivation bed do not change (no "shift" in position occurs).

Next, the lifting/moving bag W11, the barcode display section, and the material 7
Regarding the mode of cooperation between the barcode reader 11 and the barcode reader 11, the sixth section
This will be explained based on FIGS. 9 to 9. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the lifting/moving bag Wt1, and the barcode reader 11
The data read by the position detection device 12 that detects the position of the electric cylinder 19 and the movement distance calculation bag that calculates the distance that the lifting/moving bag W11 should move next! 13 to a control device 14, and a signal from this control device is sent to a speed control device 15 that controls the moving speed of this lifting/moving device and to the electric cylinder control device.

On the other hand, the barcode display member 7 is shown in FIGS.
The 5-digit barcode rows 21a to 21d (this is only a small part) shown in 1 are (a), (b), (C1, (dl)) from the sowing side to the harvesting side of the cultivation device. The barcode rows are displayed in the following order: the lower side of the figure is located on the sowing side, and the upper side is located on the harvesting side.These barcode rows indicate the origin of the rail of the electric cylinder 19 (the origin position is For example, the distance from the position in front of the nearest cultivation bed on the sowing side (specifically, the left end point of the rail 21 in FIG. 3) is displayed, and for example, the barcode column 21a
indicates that the distance from the origin is 15m345n.

Thus, the barcode array and the barcode reader 11 are arranged so that the point at which the lifting/lowering/moving device should accelerate, decelerate, switch to constant speed, or stop is determined in accordance with each distance. For example, barcode rows 21a and 21 in FIG.
b, 21c.

By reading 21d, acceleration starts 1. It is possible to stop acceleration (constant speed running), start deceleration, and stop running.

Figure 7 shows the configuration of a barcode string. One set of barcode strings consists of a start barcode, a data barcode, and an end barcode arranged in this order, and only the data barcode can be read properly. It is now considered as data.

Barcode row 21+ has a distance of 12m3 from the origin
The barcode row 21m indicates that this distance is 9 m 876 as. In FIG. 7, L is the length of the barcode row, that is, the dimension along the running direction of the elevating/moving device, and W is the width, that is, the dimension in the scanning direction of the barcode reader.

The barcode reader and the barcode array are configured to be adapted to the high or low running speed of the lifting/moving device, and when the running speed is high, a barcode reader (barcode However, if the traveling speed is low, one barcode reader is sufficient. However, in the latter case, it is necessary to set the length of the barcode to a length that allows the barcode reader to sample the barcode more than once.

In addition, even if the barcode reader scans the barcode row while the lifting/moving device is running and reads the barcode row diagonally as shown in Figure 8 (al), the start barcode and end barcode will be within the standard code width. In other words, when the barcode row shown in the figure is scanned in the order of ■, ■, ■, the read data is as shown in Figure 9, and ■ , ■ are ignored, and ■ is treated as regular data.However, for this purpose, it is necessary to prevent the speed of the lifting/moving device from changing suddenly while scanning one set of barcode rows.

In the above embodiment, the distance of the electric cylinder 19 from the rail origin is detected by the position detecting device 12, but the acceleration point or stop point is displayed on the bar code row, and this allows the lifting/lowering/stopping point to be displayed. The movement of the mobile device may also be controlled.

As described above, in the lifting/moving device of the above embodiment, basically, instead of the rotary encoder 61 and the pulse counter 62 in the conventional example shown in FIG. This is a combination to which the position detection bag ff12 is applied.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In the mobile hydroponic cultivation device of the present invention, even if the rail for lifting and moving the device expands or contracts significantly due to changes in environmental temperature, the cultivation bed is placed on this rail, and the position display bar code is also attached to the rail. Since it is installed on the top, it moves integrally by the expansion and contraction of the rail, so even if the environmental temperature changes, there will be no misalignment between the cultivation bed and the position display barcode. By moving the lifting/moving device to an appropriate position on the rail, it is possible to reliably grip the cultivation bed.

In addition, in the mobile hydroponic cultivation device of the present invention, the position detection device of the lifting/moving device is of a non-contact type, so the problem of errors caused by the “slip” in the conventional device is completely eliminated. Problems associated with changes in environmental temperature and humidity are eliminated, each cultivation bed can be reliably moved to a predetermined position, and operation, maintenance, and management are greatly streamlined, bringing about great benefits.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 to 9 relate to embodiments of the present invention, where Figure 1 is a right side view of the lifting/moving device, Figure 2 is a partial front view of Figure 1, and Figure 3 is a cultivation tank. 4 is a front view of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a right side view of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the lifting/moving device. Figure 7 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of a barcode string, and Figure 8 (al~
+d+ is a front view showing the H-like barcode row in □ display, and FIG. 9 is reading data obtained by scanning the barcode row of FIG. 8<at with a barcode reader. Figures 10 to 12 are related to conventional examples, with Figure 10 being a front view of the mobile hydroponic cultivation device, and Figure 11 being 1 of Figure 10.
-1 line sectional view and FIG. 12 are block diagrams of the elevating and moving device. ■・・・Elevating/moving device, 21.2□・・・Rail, 3
...Cultivation tank, 31.3□...Opposing wall, 4...Cultivation bed, 4+, 4t...End plate, 5+, 5z...Channel steel,
6... Concrete block, 7... Barcode display member, 8... Support member, 1-1... Barcode reader, 12... Position detection device, 13... Movement distance calculation device , 14... Control device, 15... Speed control device, 16... Drive device, 16... Sprocket wheel, 16t... Chain, 17... Drive wheel, 1
7. ...Sprocket wheel, 18...Electric cylinder, 19...Gripping member, 20...Driver wheel, 21
+, 21g, 21a to 21d... barcode string.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A large number of cultivation beds are arranged in a cultivation tank, a rail is laid along the opposite wall of the cultivation tank, and a device for lifting and lowering the cultivation bed is installed so that it can run across the rail, allowing the plants to grow. In a hydroponic cultivation device that cultivates while moving the cultivation bed by a predetermined distance from the sowing side to the harvesting side, the distance between the cultivation beds is gradually expanded by activating the lifting/moving device as the cultivation occurs. The edge of the cultivation bed is placed, a barcode row is displayed on at least one of the rails, and a barcode reader is provided at an appropriate position of the lifting/moving device, and the lifting/lowering is performed by a signal from the barcode reader. - A mobile hydroponic cultivation device characterized in that the moving device is configured to move and stop at a predetermined position on the rail. (2) A large number of cultivation beds are lined up in a cultivation tank, rails are laid along the opposite wall of the cultivation tank, and a device for lifting and lowering the cultivation bed is installed so that it can run across the rails, allowing the plants to grow. In a hydroponic cultivation device that cultivates while moving the cultivation bed by a predetermined distance from the sowing side to the harvesting side, the distance between the cultivation beds is gradually expanded by activating the lifting/moving device as the cultivation occurs. A barcode array is displayed on a long body on which the end of the cultivation bed is placed, and which is provided substantially parallel to the rail and has the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the rail, and a barcode reader is placed at an appropriate position on the lifting/moving device. A mobile hydroponic cultivation apparatus characterized in that the lifting/lowering/moving device is configured to move and stop at a predetermined position on the rail in response to a signal from the barcode reader.