JPS641082B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the improvement of a harvester equipped with an automatic steering device, and in particular, by providing two sensors on the harvested side, it is possible to detect a group of uncut grain culms from the harvesting side of the machine. Even when starting horizontal mowing work by cutting in diagonally, the uncut grain culm will not be damaged, and the machine's forward attitude can be quickly corrected to quickly run stably following the grain culm. The present invention proposes a harvesting machine that enables the harvesting of harvested culms, and does not leave any lodging culms uncut even when there are lodging culms.
The present invention will be described in detail below based on drawings showing embodiments thereof.

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing the weed dividing plate portion of the four-row harvester according to the present invention, and among the five weed dividing plates 1l, 1m ₁ , 1m ₂ , 1m ₃ , 1r. Three sensors are attached to each of the left grass dividing plate 1l and the right grass dividing plate 1r. A sensor S ₁ consisting of a photoelectric switch is mounted facing right on the mounting rod of the grass dividing plate 1r on the right side, and touch lever type sensors S ₅ and S ₆ are mounted facing left on the mounting rod of the grass dividing plate 1l on the left side, respectively. It is used for detecting remaining stubble and for rotation control, and sends the respective grain culm detection signals to the control unit to control steering for reaping the remaining stubble and one-stroke row mowing (or horizontal mowing). After finishing the cutting, the driver performs a steering operation for turning when moving on to the next horizontal cutting (or row cutting).

The tactile type sensors S ₂ and S ₄ attached to the mounting rods of the left grass dividing plate 1l and the right grass dividing plate 1r, respectively, provide steering control information during normal mowing, which has been conventionally employed. They are arranged so that they are facing each other. As shown in FIG. ₂ for sensor S ₂ , sensors S 2 and S ₄ are attached to stays 1S that are erected to support the pulling device 1t on the grass divider plate mounting rod, and are attached to the lower end of the pulling device 1t. It is located further back. Therefore, in the harvester of the present invention, the sensor S is placed in front of the sensor _S2 , that is, in front of the pulling device 1t, by directing the handle to the support pipe 1rp behind the weed divider plate 1r to the left. ₃ is installed. The touch rods of sensors S ₂ and S ₄ are relatively long and the tips are curved backwards, while those of sensor S ₃
The antennae are short and straight rod-shaped.

Sensors S ₂ , S ₃ , and S ₄ are provided with two, one, and three limit switches, respectively, and the opening and closing of the contacts are controlled by a cam that rotates in conjunction with the touch rod of each sensor. . The open/close states of the contacts of these limit switches are read into a control section consisting of a logic circuit or a microcomputer as shown in FIG. 3 as data representing the relative positional relationship between the grain culm and the machine body.

The touch rods of each of the sensors S ₂ to _{S 4} are normally in a state where they are facing directly sideways, that is, facing left or right, due to the bias of a spring (not shown). Of the four grain culm rows to be harvested, the rightmost one Wr, and the leftmost one Wr.
It comes into contact with Wl and is pressed and rotated backwards as the aircraft advances, and the opening and closing of the aforementioned contact point is determined depending on the position of contact with the grain culm.

The contact position between the touch rod of sensor S ₂ and the grain culm Wr,
Contact points 21 and 22 of the two limit switches
The relationship between on and off states is as follows.
That is, if the contact positions are areas (a), (b), and (c) from the grass divider plate 1r side to the 1 m ₃ side as shown in Fig. 1, the contact 21 is turned on only in area (c), and the others are turned on. is off, the contact 22 is on only in area (a), and off in the other areas. Next, the relationship between the contact position between the touch rod of the sensor _S3 and the grain culm Wr and the on/off states of the normally open contact 31a and the normally closed contact 31b of one limit switch is as follows. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, an area (a') having its left limit at a position closer to the grass dividing plate 1r by a distance d than the boundary between the areas (a) and (b).
The normally open contact 31a is turned on (therefore, the normally closed contact 31b is turned off) only when there is an abutting position. Similarly, for sensor S ₄ and grain culm Wl, weeding board 1l
Assuming areas (1), (2), (3), and (4) from 1 m ₁ side, each contact 41 of the three limit switches,
42 and 43 are in the on/off state as follows.
In other words, contact 41 is on only in area (1), and contact 42 is in area (1) only.
Only (3) and (4) are turned on, and 43 is turned on only in areas (1) to (3), and the others are turned off.

FIG. 3 is a schematic electrical circuit diagram of an automatic steering device for a harvester according to the present invention. Solenoids Sl and Sr are connected via switches to the positive terminal of the battery 11 whose negative terminal is grounded to the body, and switching circuits 12l and 12r turn on and off electricity to these solenoids Sl and Sr. . Solenoids Sl and Sr are solenoids of electromagnetic directional control valves for oil path switching provided in a hydraulic circuit (not shown). When the solenoid Sl or Sr is energized, the left (or right) side clutch is shut off, causing the aircraft to move to the left. (or right) It is designed to turn. The switching circuits 12l and 12r are connected in the following manner so that the switching circuits 12l and 12r are turned on and off, that is, the solenoids Sl and Sr are turned on and off, controlled by the turning on and off of the contacts.

The positive terminal of the battery 11 is connected to the common side terminal 13c of the reaping mode selection switch 13 via the contacts 31b and 21.
Also, via contact 31a or 22, to the inverter 141 of the logic circuit, and further via contact 41 to one input terminal of the NAND gate 142 of the logic circuit.
Furthermore, it is also connected to one input terminal of the NAND gate 143 via contacts 42 and 43. The selection switch 13 is set to the terminal 1 when performing the intermediate splitting operation.
The switch is operated to select terminal 3a and terminal 13b when performing row cutting or side cutting.Terminal 13a is connected to one input terminal of a NOR gate 145 via an inverter 144.
Further, the terminal 13b is connected to the NAND gate 142, 1
It is connected to the other input end of 43. The output terminal of the NAND gate 142 is connected to the other input terminal of the NOR gate 145, and the output terminals of the NAND gate 143 and the inverter 141 are connected to the inverter 146.
is connected to the input terminal of NOR gate 145
and the output signals of inverter 146 are connected so as to act as control signals for switching circuits 12l and 12r, respectively. With this circuit configuration, the NOR gate 145 (or inverter 14
When the output level of 6) becomes high level and the input level of switching circuit 12l (or 12) becomes high level, solenoid Sl or Sr
is energized to cause the aircraft to turn left (or right), but a circuit from contact 15 to switch transistor 17 is provided in order to give priority to manual steering. Contact 15 is a normally open contact of a limit switch that is activated when either the left or right side clutch lever (not shown) is operated for manual steering or braking, and is closed in this case and is normally non-conducting. The switch transistor 17 in the state becomes conductive and the NOR gate 145,
Regardless of the output level of the inverter 146, the input level of the switching circuits 12l and 12r is set to a low level, and energization to the solenoids Sl and Sr is prohibited, and automatic steering is not performed and the steering is performed by manual operation of the side clutch lever. I try to prioritize braking. The off-delay circuit 16 is provided to return to automatic steering after a certain period of time after the contact 15 opens due to the end of manual steering using the side clutch lever. This is to prevent steering from worsening the riding comfort.

Table 1 lists the operating status of the above circuit, where each contact is turned on or off by ○ or ×, and the energization or de-energization of each solenoid is represented by ○ or ×, respectively. There is. Furthermore, the symbol "-" in the table indicates that whether the switch is turned on or off is irrelevant to the control. To explain this table, first of all, in the case of intermediate split mode, the aspects of the 1st to 4th columns (however, as described later, the aspects of the 2nd to 4th columns are usually used)
Steering is performed. That is, essentially sensor S ₄
is not involved in the control and the sensors on the right, especially sensor S ₂
As a result, steering control is performed so that the contact position between the contact rod and the grain culm Wr is in region (b). In other words, when the machine veers to the left (or right), that is, to the uncut side (or to the cut side) and the contact area becomes (a) [or (c)], the machine turns to the right (or left) and moves forward. When the direction is corrected and the contact area reaches (b), it changes to a straight-ahead state and maintains that state. Therefore, region (b) is the right sensor S ₂
This is the control dead band. When the contact area of sensor S ₂ becomes (a) and the state is in the second column, the right turning operation is immediately started, so the state in the first column will not be reached in the normal reaping mode.

Next, in the case of row mowing (horizontal mowing) mode, if horizontal mowing is to be performed, the steering is performed in the manners in columns 5 to 8 (however, for the same reasons as above, normally the modes in columns 6 to 8). It will be carried out. That is, at this time as well, control is performed using the right sensor _S2 as a reference, and steering control is performed so that the contact position between the contact rod and the grain culm Wr is in the area (b).

Furthermore, when row mowing is performed in the row mowing (horizontal mowing) mode, steering is performed in the manners shown in columns 8 to 10. That is, at this time, control is performed using the left sensor _S4 as a reference, and steering control is performed so that the contact position between the contact rod and the grain culm Wl is in region (2). In other words, when the aircraft veers to the left (or right) and the contact area becomes (3) [or (1)], the aircraft turns right (or left) to correct this and the contact area becomes (2).
When this happens, the vehicle changes to a straight-ahead state and maintains that state.
Therefore, region (2) is a control dead zone of the left sensor _S4 .

Column 11 shows the sensor S ₂ after one stroke of reaping.
This refers to the situation when there is no grain culm in contact with S ₃ and S ₄ , and in this case, the aircraft moves straight without making unnecessary turns.

Focusing on the sensor _S2 , it is clear from the above that the area of contact with the grain culm Wr is
At (a), a signal commanding a right turn will be obtained. Furthermore, as mentioned above, sensor _S3 does not substantially participate in control in normal reaping mode, but sensor S3
When the contact area reaches (a'), a signal instructing a right turn will be issued. and area (a),
As mentioned above, (a′) is wider than (a′), and (a)
is determined to include (a'), so normally the right turn command signal from sensor _S4 is useless, but by providing this sensor _S4 in the present invention, The following automatic steering becomes possible. That is, in actual reaping work, as shown in Fig. 4, the machine is plunged toward the uncut grain culm group W from the cut side edge (right side edge) toward the left front and starts reaping. In some cases, Assuming that the reaping mode is set to row mowing (horizontal mowing) mode, the sensor S ₄ on the left side is in the area (1) because there is a significant mismatch between the moving direction of the machine and the row direction of the grain culm group W. Therefore, it will cut into the grain culm group W while turning left in the manner shown in column 8. Eventually, the grain culm rays on the right edge of the grain culm group W come into contact with the sensor _S2 , and the contact area changes from (c) to (b) → (a). Since sensor S ₃ is arranged ahead of sensor S ₂ , and in this case, the direction of movement of the aircraft is tilted to the left with respect to the right edge of grain culm group W, the above-mentioned dimension d should be adjusted accordingly. By selecting sensor S ₂
Before the contact area reaches (a), sensor S ₃ comes into contact with the grain ray on the right edge in area (a′),
At that point, the aircraft turns to the right in the manner shown in column 5 (column 1 if the reaping mode is mid-split mode), and the aircraft quickly aligns its traveling direction with the grain culm rays in grain culm group W. The nose of the aircraft is then turned, and the aircraft then continues to follow the grain culm to be harvested under the control described above. In other words, in this case, if you want to make a right turn depending on sensor _S2 , the aircraft will travel to the left side of the grain culm, which is not the target of reaping, in this process.
This will damage the grain culm, but this damage can be avoided by the right turn command signal from sensor _S3 that precedes the right turn signal obtained by sensor _S2 . Moreover, as is clear from the above, the signal from sensor _S3 is not substantially involved in steering during normal reaping, and in the unlikely event that the aircraft suddenly and excessively deviates to the left. As shown in columns 1 and 5, even if a right turn command signal is obtained from both sensors S ₂ and S ₃ as shown in columns 1 and 5, the direction of travel will be corrected to the right without any problem.

Since the sensor _S4 is located in front of the lifting device 1t, it can quickly obtain a right turn command even when the grain culm is lying down. Therefore, the machine immediately starts turning to the right, and the position of the machine is corrected until the grain culm reaches the cutting blade from the pulling device 1t, so that no unmown remains. Moreover, the grain culm detection area where the front sensor S ₃ issues a right turn command is narrower than the same area of the rear sensor S ₂ , so even if the right turn due to the detection of a lodging grain culm is unnecessary, the grain culm detection area is narrower than the rear sensor S 2. Since the amount is small, the stability of the steering control by the rear sensor _S2 is not impaired.

In addition, in the above embodiment, sensors S ₂ , S ₃ , and S ₄ were used as a combination of a touch rod and a limit switch.
It goes without saying that the present invention can also be practiced with a sensor using a diffuse reflection type photoelectric switch instead of these. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a specially designed model in which the right side is the non-cutting side, but in this case, the left-right hand can be reversed from the above-mentioned embodiment.

As described above in detail, the harvester of the present invention uses a sensor to detect the relative positional relationship between the grain culm to be harvested and the machine body, and controls based on this detection result to perform steering that follows the grain culm. In a harvester equipped with an automatic steering device, two horizontal cutting sensors are installed on the front part of the machine on the already cut side, and are positioned at the front and rear of the device. The grain culm detection area where a signal to turn to the harvested side can be obtained is set so that the rear sensor is a predetermined amount wider than the front sensor, and when the signal is obtained by at least one sensor, the grain culm detection area is set to be a predetermined area. It is characterized by being designed so that it can be turned to the side.

Therefore, even when horizontal mowing is started by diagonally cutting into a group of uncut grain culms from the already cut side, the grain culms are not unnecessarily damaged, and automatic steering control is quickly and stably performed. It is possible to reach the state.

During row mowing, the rows of grain culms function as a guide means, so there is almost no possibility that the machine will stray into the uncut side due to a malfunction of the automatic steering system. On the other hand, in horizontal mowing, such a guide means does not exist, and the boundary between mown and uncut mowing must be used as a guide means. Therefore, there is a high possibility that it will fall into the uncut side. Therefore, it is desirable to provide the horizontal mowing sensor in a position before the pulling device, where it can be detected earlier. On the other hand, such a sensor located in the front position increases the possibility of false detection. The present invention solves this trade-off problem by providing two horizontal mowing sensors. In other words, turning to the harvested side is preferentially performed regardless of whether the sensor is output from the front or rear sensor, thereby preventing runaway movement toward the uncut grain culm side. As,
Control based on this is given priority to suppress erroneous control caused by sensors in front.

Furthermore, in the case of the present invention, even if there is a lodging grain culm, there is no uncut residue, and even if the steering by the lodging grain culm is incorrect, it does not adversely affect the steering control by the rear sensor. .

Then, when at least one of the two sensors S ₂ and S ₃ issues a turning command to the harvested side, the machine turns to the harvested side, thereby reliably preventing damage to the uncut grain culms. has excellent effects.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the grass dividing plate portion of the machine of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a right side view showing the mounting state of sensors S ₂ and S ₃ . ,
FIG. 3 is an electrical circuit diagram of a main part of the machine of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the machine of the present invention. S ₂ , S ₃ , S ₄ ...sensor, 1l, 1r...weed dividing board, 2
1, 22, 31a, 31b, 41, 42, 43...
Contact, Sl, Sr...Solenoid.

【table】

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a harvester equipped with an automatic steering device that uses a sensor to detect the relative positional relationship between the grain culm to be harvested and the machine body, and controls based on this detection result to steer the harvester to follow the grain culm. , two horizontal cutting sensors are installed on the front part of the machine on the cut side, and are located at the front and rear of the pulling device, respectively. The culm detection area is characterized in that the rear sensor is wider than the front sensor by a predetermined amount, and when the signal is obtained by at least one sensor, the machine is turned to the harvested side. Harvesting machine.