WO2022168309A1 - Harvesting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To provide a harvesting apparatus capable of improving harvesting efficiency while suppressing damage to a harvest in the harvesting process. [Solution] The harvesting apparatus comprises a sliding section that moves up and down with respect to a collection section for collecting the harvest, a movable arm connected to the sliding section, a gripper that is provided at the tip portion of the movable arm and can grip the harvest, and a tray provided on the sliding section and located below the movable arm, the tray being configured to receive the harvest from the gripper and transfer the harvest to the collection section.

Description

harvesting equipment

The present disclosure relates to a harvesting device for harvesting agricultural crops.

Conventionally, harvesting devices for automatically harvesting crops such as mini tomatoes are known. Patent Literature 1 discloses a harvesting device for picking fruits using a hand for picking fruits provided at the tip of an articulated arm.

JP 2018-134059 A

The harvesting device described in Patent Document 1 is configured to harvest the fruit of vegetation with a hand for fruit thinning, and then convey the fruit to a storage section (collection basket) by a conveyor. However, there is still room for improvement in terms of fruit harvesting efficiency. There is also room for improvement in terms of suppressing damage to the harvest that may occur in the process of transporting the harvest picked by the fruit picking hand to the storage unit.

The present disclosure has been made in view of the above problems, and its purpose is to provide a harvesting device capable of improving harvesting efficiency while suppressing damage to harvested materials during the harvesting process.

According to the present disclosure, a slide portion that moves up and down with respect to a collection portion for collecting harvested material;
a movable arm connected to the slide;
a gripper provided at the tip of the movable arm and capable of gripping a harvest;
a tray provided on the slide portion and positioned below the movable arm;
A harvesting device is provided, wherein the tray is configured to receive harvested material from the gripper and transfer the harvested material to the collecting station.

According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide a harvesting device capable of improving harvesting efficiency while suppressing damage to the harvested material during the harvesting process.

1 is a perspective view of a harvesting device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. It is a front view of the harvesting apparatus which concerns on the same embodiment. It is a side view of the harvesting apparatus which concerns on the same embodiment. It is a top view of the harvesting apparatus which concerns on the same embodiment. FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a state in which the tray is in an inclined posture in the harvesting device according to the same embodiment. 6 is a partially enlarged view of the harvesting device shown in FIG. 5; FIG. FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing an example of an automatic harvesting method;

The contents of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be listed and described. A harvesting device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure has the following configuration.
[Item 1]
a slide part that moves up and down with respect to the accumulation part for collecting the harvested material;
a movable arm connected to the slide;
a gripper provided at the tip of the movable arm and capable of gripping a harvest;
a tray provided on the slide portion and positioned below the movable arm;
A harvesting device, wherein the tray is configured to receive the harvested material from the gripper and transfer the harvested material to the collecting section.
[Item 2]
The harvesting device according to item 1, wherein the tray changes its posture between a horizontal posture for holding the harvested material received from the gripper and an inclined posture for transferring the harvested material to the stacking section.
[Item 3]
3. Harvesting device according to item 1 or 2, wherein the tray is located on the proximal side of the movable arm.
[Item 4]
4. The harvesting device according to any one of items 1 to 3, wherein the trays are provided on both left and right sides of the slide portion.
[Item 5]
5. The harvesting device according to any one of items 1 to 4, wherein the tray and the movable arm are positioned so as not to overlap the stacking section when viewed from above.
[Item 6]
6. The method according to any one of items 1 to 5, wherein a chute portion is provided between the tray and the stacking portion and is inclined downward from the tray toward the stacking portion for transporting the harvested material. Harvesting device as described.
[Item 7]
7. The harvesting device according to any one of items 1 to 6, wherein the tray has a bottom plate portion, a side wall portion rising from the bottom plate portion, and a delivery port opening toward the stacking portion.
[Item 8]
8. A harvesting device according to item 7, wherein the delivery port of the tray is provided with an inclined surface rising from the bottom plate portion.
[Item 9]
9. Any one of items 1 to 8, wherein the tray is configured to transfer the harvested material stored in the tray to the collecting unit on condition that the harvested material stored in the tray reaches a predetermined amount. 3. Harvesting device according to paragraph.
[Item 10]
detection means for detecting the number of transfers of the harvested material from the tray to the stacking section;
10. The harvesting device according to any one of items 1 to 9, further comprising harvest amount estimating means for estimating the amount of harvested material accumulated in the accumulation unit based on the number of transfers.

Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the present specification and drawings, constituent elements having substantially the same functional configuration are denoted by the same reference numerals, thereby omitting redundant description.

1 is a perspective view of the harvesting device 1 of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a front view, FIG. 3 is a side view, and FIG. 4 is a plan view. The harvesting device 1 is a device for automatically harvesting fruits of plants such as cherry tomatoes. The type of crops to be harvested is not particularly limited, and may be vegetables, fruits, or other crops such as asparagus that require selective harvesting.

The harvesting device 1 includes a carriage-like base portion 10 that serves as the base of the device, a slide portion 20 that moves up and down with respect to the base portion 10, a movable arm 30 provided on the slide portion 20, and a tip end of the movable arm 30. It has a gripper 40 and a tray 50 that moves up and down following the slide part 20 and the movable arm 30 .

The base portion 10 includes a travel device 11, a strut portion 12 provided on the travel device, and a stacking basket 13 as a stacking portion provided on the travel device. The traveling device 11 has tires 11a, for example, and can travel on the ground or rails. This allows the harvesting device 1 to move along the path between ridges in the field. The harvesting device 1 of this example can move forward and backward. The collecting basket 13 has an upward opening 13a for taking in and out harvested products. The travel device 11 has a power source such as a battery and a motor for driving the tires 11a, or an engine. In addition, the traveling device 11 may be provided with crawlers instead of the tires 11a. Also, the base portion 10 may be installed on the ground without the travel device 11 .

In addition, the harvesting device 1 includes, for example, an imaging device such as a camera 60 that takes an image when selecting crops (harvested products) to be harvested, and a lighting device. The harvesting device 1 also includes a GPS sensor that detects the position of the harvesting device 1 based on signals transmitted from GPS satellites, a recording device that records information necessary for each process executed by the harvesting device 1, and a mobile terminal. and a communication device that transmits and receives various information to and from the farm work management server; drives the traveling device 11 so that the harvesting device 1 moves along a predetermined route; A central processing unit or the like may be provided that is connected to each of the drive devices that drive the trays 50 and that is connected to each of the components described above and that includes a control unit and a storage unit that control the components. Each component may be a single component, or may be a component including a plurality of components. The automatic harvesting device may be controlled by various information processing terminals such as smartphones and an agricultural work management server that are communicably connected to each other via a predetermined communication network. The harvesting device 1 also detects the vertical position of the slide portion 20, acquires the number of times the harvested material has been moved from the gripper 40 to the tray 50, and acquires the number of times the tray 50 has been tilted. A detection device such as various sensors may be provided.

The stacking basket 13 is detachably installed on the frame that constitutes the base portion 10 . The stacking basket 13 is located on the rear side of the column portion 12, and the movable arm 30 is located on the front side (advance direction side) of the column portion 12. As shown in FIG. An obliquely inclined plate-like chute portion 14 is provided above the stacking basket 13 . The chute portion 14 is inclined downward from the tray 50 side toward the stacking basket 13 . The chute portion 14 has a smaller width on the stacking basket 13 side than on the tray 50 side, and the chute portion 14 is provided with side walls for preventing falling. The shape of the chute portion 14 can be changed as appropriate. It should be noted that the chute section 14 is not an essential component, and the harvested products on the tray 50 may be moved directly to the stacking basket 13 . By providing the chute portion 14, the tray 50 and the stacking basket 13 can be arranged with an appropriate space therebetween. As a result, a member such as a battery can be arranged below the chute portion 14, and the space above the base portion 10 can be effectively used.

The slide section 20 is configured to be vertically movable along the support section 12 extending in the vertical direction. Thereby, the movable arm 30 and the gripper 40 connected to the slide portion 20 and the tray 50 move up and down together with the slide portion 20 . The slide part 20, the movable arm 30, the gripper 40, and the tray 50 are driven by driving devices such as motors connected to power sources such as batteries based on instructions from the central processing unit.

The slide portion 20 is positioned on the front side of the strut portion 12 so as not to interfere (contact) with the chute portion 14 and the stacking basket 13 positioned on the rear side (opposite side to the traveling direction) of the strut portion 12 even when it moves up and down. is configured to

The movable arm 30 can move within a predetermined range and move the gripper 40 to the position of the fruit to be harvested. Movable arm 30 can also move gripper 40 directly over each tray 50 to transfer harvested fruit to tray 50 . Although the harvesting device 1 of this example has only one movable arm 30 and one gripper 40 , it may have a plurality of movable arms 30 and grippers 40 . The movable arm 30 is configured to move the gripper 40 to both the crop to be harvested on the left side and the crop to be harvested on the right side with respect to the traveling direction of the harvesting device 1. .

The movable arm 30 is connected to the slide portion 20 on the base end side and to the gripper 40 on the tip end side. The movable arm 30 of this example is a horizontal articulated arm to which a plurality of arms are connected via joints and which can be bent and extended with the joints as fulcrums. A part or the whole may be stretchable. Each arm portion of the movable arm 30 swings in the horizontal direction with each joint portion serving as a fulcrum, and the gripper 40 can be moved to a predetermined position and in a predetermined direction.

As shown in FIG. 4, the movable arm 30 of this example includes a first arm portion 32 connected to the slide portion 20 via a first joint portion 31 and a first arm portion 32 connected to the slide portion 20 via a second joint portion 33. and a second arm portion 34 connected to the gripper 40 via a third joint portion 35 . Since the movable arm 30 moves only in the horizontal direction, the position of the gripper 40 also changes only in the horizontal direction including the front-rear direction and the left-right direction. In this example, the vertical positions of the movable arm 30, the gripper 40, and the tray 50 with respect to the slide portion 20 do not change. The movable arm 30 may be configured to have a joint portion that can swing and rotate in any direction. In this case, the movable arm 30 allows the gripper 40 to move vertically.

The gripper 40, as shown in FIG. 6, has two finger portions 41 with tapered ends and opens and closes. The gripper 40 brings the finger portions 41 in the open state closer to the fruit to be harvested, and closes the finger portions 41 with the fruit placed between the two finger portions 41 to grip the fruit. configured to be able to The gripper 40 grips the fruit in the vegetation with the two finger portions, rotates the gripper 40 with the joint portion as a fulcrum, and twists the fruit, thereby picking only the fruit from the stem. The fruit picked in this way is held between the two finger portions 41 and the gripper 40 can release the fruit by opening the finger portions 41 . The configuration of the gripper 40 is not limited to the illustrated example as long as it can hold the harvested material. It may have a blade for cutting.

The tray 50 is provided on the slide portion 20 and moves up and down together with the slide portion 20 . Also, the tray 50 is positioned below the movable arm 30 and the gripper 40 . The tray 50 is arranged at a position where the distance from the movable arm 30 and the gripper 40 is smaller than that of the stacking basket 13 . Since the tray 50 is provided on the slide portion 20, the vertical distance between the movable arm 30 (and the gripper 40) and the tray 50 is constant and basically does not change. In this example, two trays 50 are provided so as to sandwich the support 12 from both the left and right sides, but the number of trays 50 may be one or three or more.

The tray 50 is configured to receive harvested material from the gripper 40 and transfer the harvested material to the collecting basket 13 . The tray 50 of this example has a horizontal attitude (FIGS. 1 to 4) for holding the harvested material received from the gripper 40 on the tray 50, and an inclined attitude (FIGS. 5 and 6) for transferring the harvested material to the stacking basket 13. Attitudes change between The tray 50 of this example is positioned not on the distal end side of the movable arm 30 but on the proximal end side. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, each tray 50 is positioned inside the left and right tires 11a, and the position in the left-right direction is always constant. Therefore, for example, even when the movable arm 30 is extended to bring the gripper 40 closer to the harvest target, the tray 50 does not approach the harvest target, and the tray 50 may come into contact with fruits or stems other than the harvest target. There is no As a result, it is possible to suppress a decrease in harvesting accuracy by the gripper 40 and prevent damage to the harvested products due to contact with the tray 50 .

The trays 50 are provided on both left and right sides of the slide portion 20 . With such a configuration, it is possible to efficiently harvest the crops located on both the left and right sides of the harvesting device 1 . It should be noted that the postures of the left and right trays 50 may be changed simultaneously (integrally), or the postures of the trays 50 may be changed independently.

As shown in FIG. 4, the tray 50 and the movable arm 30 are positioned so as not to overlap the stacking basket 13 in plan view. With such a configuration, even if the slide portion 20 moves up and down, the tray 50 and the movable arm 30 can be moved below the upper surface of the stacking basket 13 because it does not come into contact with the stacking basket 13 . As a result, even crops that are close to the ground can be harvested.

As shown enlarged in FIG. 6, the tray 50 has side walls 52 in three directions rising from a bottom plate 51 and a delivery port 53 that opens toward the stacking basket 13 and opens upward. By providing the side wall portion 52, it is possible to suppress the harvested material from falling from the tray 50, and by providing the delivery port 53, harvesting can be performed smoothly from the tray 50 to the stacking basket 13 through the delivery port 53. You can send things. In this example, the bottom plate portion 51 is configured to be horizontal when the tray 50 is in the horizontal posture, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the tray 50 is in a horizontal posture, part or the whole of the bottom plate portion 51 may be inclined.

The outlet 53 of the tray 50 is provided with an inclined surface 54 rising from the bottom plate portion 51 . Since the inclined surface 54 is inclined toward the bottom plate portion 51 when the tray 50 is in a horizontal posture, it is possible to prevent the harvested products on the tray 50 from unintentionally falling from the delivery port 53 . The angle of the inclined surface 54 is set so that the inclined surface 54 is inclined toward the stacking basket 13 (relative to the horizontal plane) in the inclined posture of the tray 50 shown in FIGS. As a result, when the tray 50 is tilted, the harvested products on the tray 50 smoothly move toward the stacking basket 13. - 特許庁

The tray 50 may change its posture from the horizontal posture to the inclined posture only when the slide portion 20 is positioned within a predetermined range in the vertical direction. That is, the operating position for tilting the tray 50 may be limited within a predetermined vertical range. With such a configuration, the harvested material can be moved from the tray 50 to the chute 14 only when the tray 50 is positioned at a predetermined height above the chute 14 (or the stacking basket 13). Become. As a result, it is possible to prevent the falling distance from the tray 50 to the chute portion 14 (or the stacking basket 13) from becoming too large, and it is possible to improve the damage suppression accuracy of the harvested products.

Alternatively, the harvested material may be transferred to the collection basket 13 on condition that the harvested material stored in the tray 50 reaches a predetermined amount (a predetermined number or a predetermined weight). Specifically, for example, based on the number of times the gripper 40 has placed the harvested material on each tray 50, the central processing unit or the like can grasp that the harvested material stored in each tray 50 has reached a predetermined amount. can. Alternatively, each tray 50 may be provided with a weight measuring device so that the total weight of the harvest held by each tray 50 can be grasped.

The harvesting apparatus 1 also includes detection means for detecting the number of transfers of the harvested material from the tray 50 to the collecting basket 13, and harvest amount estimation means for estimating the amount of the harvested material accumulated in the collecting basket 13 based on the number of times of transfer. and may be provided. With such a configuration, the timing for replacing the stacking basket 13 can be automatically grasped without checking the stacking basket 13 . Although the detection means and the harvest amount estimation means are not particularly limited, for example, they can be provided in the control section of the central processing unit. By counting the number of times the tray 50 changes from the horizontal posture to the inclined posture in the control unit of the central processing unit, the number of times the harvested material is transferred from the tray 50 to the stacking basket 13 can be detected. Alternatively, for example, the amount of harvested material transferred from the tray 50 to the stacking basket 13 at one time may be stored in advance in the storage unit or the like of the central processing unit, and the control unit may multiply the number of times of transfer by the amount of one transfer. , the amount of harvested material in the collecting basket 13 can be estimated.

The harvesting device 1 of this example is equipped with two cameras 60 facing left and right with respect to the direction of travel. The camera 60 is provided on the slide portion 20 and moves up and down together with the slide portion 20 . Also, the camera 60 is positioned above the movable arm 30 . In addition, in the harvesting apparatus 1 of this example, an illumination device for illuminating the photographing direction of the camera 60 is provided near the lens of the camera 60 .

A method for automatically harvesting fruits of crops such as cherry tomatoes using the harvesting device 1 will be described below.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing an example of the automatic harvesting method. First, the harvesting device 1 is started while it is installed at the beginning of the passage between the ridges. Device 1 starts automatic harvesting.

The harvesting device 1 reciprocates the slide portion 20 up and down along the column portion 12 (step S1), and drives the traveling device 11 to travel forward in the passage between the ridges (step S2). are searched for harvesting targets (step S3). In step S3, when the fruit or the like to be harvested is detected from the camera image, the harvesting device 1 stops traveling by the traveling device 11 (step S4) and stops the vertical movement of the slide portion 20 (step S5). . In this state, the camera 60 searches for a harvest target (step S6), and if a fruit or the like to be harvested is detected from the camera image, the closest fruit to be harvested is harvested (step S7). Specifically, the movable arm 30 is moved horizontally to move the gripper 40 to the fruit to be harvested, and the finger portions 41 of the gripper 40 grip and twist the fruit to pick the fruit from the stem of the vegetation. Then, the movable arm 30 is moved to move the gripper 40 onto the tray 50 in the horizontal position, and the gripper 40 is opened to release the harvested fruit, drop it toward the tray 50 (step S8), and harvest the fruit onto the tray 50. things are held. At this time, it is preferable that the distance from the gripper 40 to the tray 50 is small from the viewpoint of reducing the impact when it is dropped. Proper distance is maintained.

The harvesting device 1 determines whether N or more harvested crops are held (stored) in the tray 50 (step S9). In step S9, when it is determined that the number of harvested crops held on the tray 50 is N or more, the slide portion 20 is moved up and down as necessary to move the tray 50 to a predetermined operating position. (Step S10). The operating position for tilting the tray 50 from the horizontal position to the inclined position is set in advance and stored, for example, in the storage section of the central processing unit. The harvesting device 1 tilts the tray 50 from the horizontal position to the inclined position, and transfers the harvested products on the tray 50 to the stacking basket 13 (step S11). The harvested material slides or rolls on the inclined surface of the tray 50 to pass through the delivery port, slides or rolls on the chute 14 , and is accumulated in the accumulation basket 13 . When step S11 ends, the process returns to step S6.

In step S6, if the fruit or the like to be harvested is not detected from the camera image, the process returns to step S1.

In step S9, if it is determined that the number of harvested products held on the tray 50 is not N or more (i.e., less than N), is M or more harvested products held on the tray 50 stored? is determined (step S12). Note that M is an integer smaller than N. In step S12, when it is determined that the number of harvested crops held on the tray 50 is M or more, the current position of the slide portion 20 (or the current position of the tray 50) and the tray 50 can be tilted. It is determined whether or not the difference from the operating position is less than H [cm] (step S13). When it is determined in step S13 that the difference between the current position and the operating position of the tray 50 is less than H [cm], the process proceeds to step S10. Further, when it is determined in step S13 that the difference between the current position and the operating position of the tray 50 is not less than H [cm] (that is, is H [cm] or more), the process proceeds to step S6.

In step S3, if the fruit or the like to be harvested is not detected from the camera image, it is determined whether or not the harvesting device 1 has reached the end of the passage (step S14). When it is determined in step S14 that the harvesting device 1 has not reached the end of the passage, the process proceeds to step S3. Further, when it is determined in step S14 that the harvesting device 1 has reached the end of the passage, the traveling is stopped (step S15), and the vertical movement of the slide portion 20 is stopped (step S16). Thus, the automatic harvesting ends.

As described above, the harvesting device 1 of this embodiment includes a base portion 10 having a stacking portion (stacking basket 13) for collecting harvested products, a slide portion 20 that moves up and down with respect to the stacking portion, and a slide portion 20 that moves up and down with respect to the stacking portion. a movable arm 30 connected to the movable arm 30, a gripper 40 provided at the tip of the movable arm 30 and capable of gripping a harvested product, a tray 50 provided on the slide portion 20 and positioned below the movable arm 30, , and the tray 50 is configured to receive the harvest from the gripper 40 and transfer the harvest to the collection station. Thus, by providing the tray 50 for temporarily holding the harvested material between the gripper 40 and the stacking section, it is possible to reduce the impact on the harvested material in the process of being transferred from the gripper 40 to the stacking section. Therefore, damage to harvested products can be suppressed. In addition, the movement range of the gripper 40 can be reduced, and since the harvested material can be collected to some extent by the tray 50 and then transferred to the stacking section, the harvesting efficiency can be enhanced.

Therefore, according to the harvesting device 1 of the present embodiment, it is possible to provide a harvesting device capable of increasing the harvesting efficiency while suppressing damage to the harvested material during the harvesting process.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail above with reference to the accompanying drawings, the technical scope of the present disclosure is not limited to such examples. It is obvious that those who have ordinary knowledge in the technical field of the present disclosure can conceive of various modifications or modifications within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims. is naturally within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

Also, the effects described in this specification are merely descriptive or exemplary, and are not limiting. In other words, the technology according to the present disclosure can produce other effects that are obvious to those skilled in the art from the description of this specification in addition to or instead of the above effects.

1: Harvesting device 10: Base part 11: Traveling device 12: Post part 13: Stacking basket (stacking part)
14: chute part 20: slide part 30: movable arm 40: gripper 50: tray

Claims (10)

a slide part that moves up and down with respect to the accumulation part for collecting the harvested material;
a movable arm connected to the slide;
a gripper provided at the tip of the movable arm and capable of gripping a harvest;
a tray provided on the slide portion and positioned below the movable arm;
A harvesting device, wherein the tray is configured to receive the harvested material from the gripper and transfer the harvested material to the collecting section. The harvesting device according to claim 1, wherein the tray changes its attitude between a horizontal attitude for holding the harvested material received from the gripper and an inclined attitude for transferring the harvested material to the stacking unit. The harvesting device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the tray is positioned on the base end side of the movable arm. The harvesting device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the trays are provided on both left and right sides of the slide portion. The harvesting device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the tray and the movable arm are positioned so as not to overlap with the stacking section when viewed from above. 6. A chute portion for transporting the harvested material is provided between the tray and the stacking portion, the chute portion being inclined downward from the tray toward the stacking portion. 2. Harvesting device according to . The harvesting device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the tray has a bottom plate portion, a side wall portion rising from the bottom plate portion, and a delivery port opening toward the stacking portion. The harvesting device according to claim 7, wherein the delivery port of the tray is provided with an inclined surface rising from the bottom plate portion. 9. The tray according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the tray is configured to transfer the harvested material stored in the tray to the collecting unit on condition that the harvested material stored in the tray reaches a predetermined amount. A harvesting device according to claim 1. detection means for detecting the number of transfers of the harvested material from the tray to the stacking section;
The harvesting apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising harvest amount estimating means for estimating the amount of harvested material accumulated in the accumulation unit based on the number of transfers.

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