JPH0410086B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a method for automatically terminating work for an unmanned working vehicle, specifically, a method for automatically terminating work on an unmanned working vehicle, specifically,
An automated work vehicle for an unmanned working vehicle, which is equipped with a tracing sensor that detects a boundary between a treated work area and an untreated work area, a distance sensor that detects the travel distance of the vehicle body, and a direction sensor that detects the travel direction of the vehicle body. Regarding the termination method.

Conventionally, in order to improve work efficiency, this type of unmanned work vehicle has been taught by manned driving around the outer circumference of the planned work area in advance, and the driving sampled during this teaching is Based on the course information, this work ground outline is calculated and memorized, a driving course for the part that covers the inside is automatically generated, and this area is automatically driven continuously to perform ground work in the desired area. The idea is to do this automatically.

However, although the above-mentioned conventional means achieve the goal of automating ground work, a predetermined range of work is completed because no means has been established to effectively terminate this automatically performed work. Until then, there was an inconvenience in that the running condition of the work vehicle had to be constantly monitored.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to
To provide a method capable of automatically stopping an unmanned working vehicle when traveling on all automatically generated travel courses is completed.

In order to achieve the above object, the method for automatically terminating work for an unmanned working vehicle according to the present invention includes: (a) Prior to unmanned driving, the work vehicle is driven around the outer circumference of the work site by manned driving, and during this driving, the distance sensor and the direction are A process of teaching the general shape of the work area to the work vehicle using a sensor.

[B] A step of calculating the distance per stroke and the number of strokes of the traveling course to be followed by the teaching information obtained by traveling along the outer circumference.

[C] While driving in accordance with the information on the driving course,
A step of measuring the actual travel distance for each stroke of the travel course to be followed by the distance sensor.

[d] When the number of tracing travel strokes reaches the calculated number of strokes and the actual travel distance reaches the calculated distance per stroke or more, the work is considered completed and the travel is stopped. Process.

A characteristic configuration is that the steps described in [A] to [D] above are performed in the order described.

Due to the above characteristic structure, the following excellent effects have been achieved.

In other words, if the actual number of round trips on the automatically generated travel course reaches the calculated number of trips, and the actual travel distance reaches or exceeds the calculated distance per trip, the work is completed. As a result, since the running of the vehicle body is stopped, it has become possible to automatically end the work after completing the ground work in a predetermined range. Therefore, there is no possibility of a malfunction in which the work vehicle is forced to stop automatically during a reciprocating journey or during a change of direction, so there is an effect that work efficiency is not impaired.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, a lawn mowing device 4 is suspended between the front and rear wheels 2 and 3 of the vehicle body 1 so as to be movable up and down, and an unmown lawn area and an already mown lawn, which is the boundary of the driving course, are placed in front of the vehicle body 1. Tracing sensors 5A and 5B having the configuration described later for determining the boundary with the mowed field are provided on the front left and right sides of the vehicle body 1, and the steering is controlled based on the boundary detection results of the tracing sensors 5A and 5B, and the steering is controlled by outer circumferential teaching. A lawn mowing vehicle V is configured as an unmanned vehicle capable of automatically traveling along a predetermined automatically generated travel course.

Furthermore, a fifth distance sensor 6 is provided on the vehicle body 1 of the lawn mowing vehicle V to continuously detect the moving distance L of the vehicle body 1 by generating a pulse signal once every predetermined moving distance 10. ring 6A, and
A direction sensor 7 is provided that detects the traveling direction of the vehicle body 1 by sensing the earth's magnetism.

The front wheels 2, 2 serve as steering wheels, and are normally configured to be steered by a predetermined amount in the left and right direction by a hydraulic cylinder 8 based on the boundary detection results of the copy sensors 5A, 5B.

The copying sensors 5A and 5B are a pair of optical sensors S1, S2, S1', and S1 having the same configuration and arranged at both front left and right ends of the lawn mower 4, respectively.
2'.

The optical sensors S1, S2, S1', S2' are
As shown in FIG. 2, U-shaped sensor frames 9, 9, each disposed adjacent to the vehicle body 1 in the left and right direction, are fixed to a sensor mounting frame 10 provided on the lawn mower 4. Light emitting elements P1, P1 are provided on the inner facing surfaces of the sensor frames 9, 9, respectively.
The configuration includes a pair of light receiving elements P2 and P2. Then, as the vehicle body 1 travels, the boundary between unmowed land and mowed land is determined by sensing the presence or absence of grass introduced between the light emitting element P1 and the light receiving element P2. It is configured.

As shown in FIG. 3, the optical sensors S1, S
2, dual scanning sensor 5 consisting of a pair of S1' and S2'
When one of A and 5B is on the uncut land 11B, the vehicle is steered so that only the optical sensor S2 or S2' arranged outside the other copying sensor is on the mowed land 11C. , when it reaches the turning point 11D around the lawn mowing work area 11A, it is controlled to turn in the direction of the tracing sensor that has been on the unmowed area 11B side. Note that the turning area 11D has been artificially made into a mown area in advance as will be described later, and the fact that this turning area 11D has been reached is due to the tracing sensor 5.
Photosensors S1, S2, S forming A, 5B
1' and S2' are all determined by detecting already mown areas.

Hereinafter, each sensor 5A, 5B having the above configuration,
A control system that controls the running of the vehicle body 1 based on the information from 6 and 7 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4, the control system includes an arithmetic and control unit 12 whose main part is a microcomputer.
The signals from the scanning sensors 5A, 5B, the distance sensor 6, and the direction sensor 7 are inputted via the input interface 13, and the electromagnetic valve 14 is actuated based on the signals from these sensors. , a hydraulic cylinder 8 which is an actuator
In order to drive the front wheels 2, 2 and the transmission 15, the control signal is output to the output interface 16 as a result of the calculation.

Then, the lawn mowing work area 11 shown in FIG.
Before mowing the lawn in A,
In order to artificially make the 1D area a mown area in advance, the operator drives the lawn mowing work in one or two strokes.
During this period, the distance sensor 6 and direction sensor 7 sample the outer circumference of the work site, teach the general shape of the work site based on this sampling information, and follow one journey of the travel course to be followed. The hit distance L0 is calculated.

In other words, when traveling during outer circumference teaching, every predetermined distance traveled from the start point ST,
sampling the direction information from the direction sensor 7 and the mileage information from the distance sensor 6;
Store at a predetermined address in memory. Then, teach around the perimeter of the work area and teach at the starting point.
When the vehicle returns to ST, the vehicle is stopped along the vicinity of the start point ST, and the coordinates relative to the start point ST are calculated in the following steps.

In other words, based on the coordinates of the starting point ST,
The azimuth information and the reference azimuth are compared to determine the quadrant of the running direction, and the azimuth of the running direction with respect to the reference azimuth is calculated. The coordinates of each sampling point are calculated based on this direction, the predetermined travel distance, and the coordinates of the previous sampling point.

The coordinates of the sampling point obtained in this way are calculated as relative distances with respect to the start point ST, so from this information the maximum and minimum values of the coordinates of the sampling point in the X direction are calculated. , calculate the expected travel distance L0 per stroke corresponding to each working width d of the lawn mower 4,
Obtain travel course information necessary for automatic direction change during lawn mowing work after perimeter teaching.

In addition, when calculating the distance L0 per stroke of the running course by the outer circumference teaching, based on the working width d of the lawn mowing device 4 and the teaching information, the distance L0 for running the automatically generated running course is calculated based on the working width d of the lawn mowing device 4 and the teaching information. The planned number of round trips N0 as the required number of strokes is calculated in advance.

Thereafter, in order to automatically travel on the uncut land side along the boundary between the mowed land 11C and the unmown land 11B, the tracing sensors 5A and 5B perform tracing travel control. While driving, the distance sensor 7 integrates the actual travel distance L,
This travel distance L is the planned travel distance L for each of the above steps.
Control is performed to change direction only when the value substantially matches 0.

Then, as shown in Figure 3 above, the starting point is
As shown by the arrow from ST, while mowing the lawn, the scheduled number of reciprocations N0 is automatically repeated, and the copying sensors 5A, 5
B detects the turning point 11D, that is, checks the number N of times the vehicle body 1 changes direction each time, and detects the moving distance l of the turning point 11D, that is, the mowed ground detection state, by the distance sensor 7. Check that the number of direction changes N reaches the scheduled number of round trips N0, and the moving distance l is a predetermined distance.
If it reaches X ₀ or more, it is determined that the ground work for the entire driving course has been completed, and the transmission device 15
The entire operation is completed by placing the machine in neutral and automatically stopping the vehicle.

Incidentally, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control device 12 described above.

Also, while traveling within the scheduled travel distance L0 of each of the travel courses, a portion 1 where there is no grass in the unmowed land 11B.
1E, and the copying sensors 5A and 5B generate the same detection signal as when detecting the turning point 11D, compare the cumulative travel distance L and the planned distance L0 on that driving course, and If the distance is less than the planned distance L0, either simply control the vehicle to go straight, or sample and memorize the travel pattern (direction) during the previous journey and control the travel direction by referring to that travel pattern. It may be configured as desired.

Incidentally, although reference numerals are written in the claims section for convenient comparison with the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the structure shown in the accompanying drawings.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the automatic work termination method for an unmanned working vehicle according to the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is an overall plan view of the lawn mowing working vehicle, Fig. 2 is a front view of main parts showing the configuration of a copying sensor, and Fig. 3 4 is a block diagram of the control system, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control device. 1... Vehicle body, 5A, 5B... Copying sensor, 6
A...Distance sensor, 7...Direction sensor, L...
...actual mileage, L0...distance, N0...calculated number of strokes.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Profiling sensors 5A and 5B are provided at the front left and right positions of the vehicle body 1, respectively, for detecting the boundary between the treated work area and the untreated work area, and a distance for detecting the traveling distance of the vehicle body 1. A method for automatically terminating work using an unmanned working vehicle equipped with a sensor 6A and an orientation sensor 7 for detecting the running direction, characterized by performing the steps described in [A] to [D] below in the order described. A method for automatically ending work for an unmanned working vehicle. [B] Prior to unmanned driving, the work vehicle is driven around the outer circumference of the work area by manned driving, and during this driving, the outline of the work area is taught to the work vehicle using the distance sensor 6A and the direction sensor 7. [B] A step of calculating the distance L0 per stroke and the number of strokes N0 of the traveling course to be followed by the teaching information obtained by traveling along the outer circumference. [C] While driving in accordance with the information on the driving course,
A step of measuring the actual travel distance L for each stroke of the travel course to be followed by the distance sensor 6A. [D] If the number of tracing travel strokes reaches the calculated number of strokes N0, and the actual travel distance L reaches the calculated distance per stroke L0 or more, the work is deemed to have been completed and the work is continued. The process of stopping.