JPH0413964B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a fruit harvesting device for harvesting oranges, apples, pears, grapes, and other orchard fruits.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in orchards, fruits are harvested manually using scissors or by shaking trees to cause them to fall.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) When harvesting fruit manually using scissors, a large number of skilled workers must be assembled within a short period of time when the fruit is ripe. In rural areas with a labor shortage, it is becoming increasingly difficult to gather people during the harvest season. When unripe fruit is picked, the lengths of the pods attached to the fruit become uneven, and the fruit may drop or collide with each other, reducing quality.

Also, shaking the tree to drop the fruit to the ground tends to damage the fruit, leaving the fruit that does not fall on the tree.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides a harvesting device for repeatedly approaching and moving fruit on a tree by manual or mechanical operation, which has a picking section in the upper part and a packaging section in the lower part. The picking section includes a pair of pinching rollers that hold the fruit in the pod and a support drive mechanism therefor, a drive that drives one or both of the rollers to pull up the pod until the fruit approaches the rollers; The packaging section is equipped with a detection mechanism, and the pinching roller support mechanism or a pod cutting mechanism provided in the roller so as to operate when the pod stops being pulled up. A circulation belt with a driving holding roller, a bag supply section that sends long linked bags to this belt,
and a descending hose that sequentially guides to the ground the connecting bags that have received fruits that have fallen between the belts on both sides.

(Function) The harvesting device of the present invention has the functions of picking the fruits on the tree and placing the fruits in a long joint bag and successively lowering them to the ground. This device can be brought close to the fruit or moved by hand or by another device.

The function of this invention is that first, the fruit is held in the picking section, and the husk is held between a pair of rollers.
However, don't cut off the pod right away. The pinched husk is pulled up by the drive of the pinch rollers, and when the fruit approaches the rollers appropriately, the detection mechanism stops the fruit and activates the husk cutting mechanism.

The cut fruit falls through the lower packaging between the belts on both sides. The belts on both sides are circulating belts with holding rollers that intermittently drive the long linked bags taken from the bag supply section, so that the fruit falls into one chamber of the linked bags. The bag is supported by holding down both edges and being sandwiched between rollers and a belt.

When the belts on both sides perform an intermittent feeding operation for one bag chamber, the bag containing fruit advances into the hose that leads to the ground, and the next empty chamber of the joint bag will stop directly below the picking section.

In this way, the fruit pods are picked to a certain length, immediately packed into bags, one per room, and lowered to the ground one after another through a hose.

(Embodiment) Figures 1 and 2 show an embodiment of this invention. That A
is the picking part and B is the packaging part. The main components of the picking section A are pinch rollers 1 and 2 and, in this example, a cutting blade 4 built into the roller 1 (see Fig. 3), and each of the pinch rollers 1 and 2 is supported at both ends by a pair of arms 10. has been done. The pinching action of the pinching rollers 1 and 2 is achieved by rotating the small gears 1a and 2a at both ends of the shaft of each roller, which mesh with the teeth on the outer periphery of the pair of orbital gears 3, in the forward and reverse directions. I try to move it forward and backward along the outer periphery. Note that the orbital gears 3 are fixed oppositely on the packaging part B, each pair of arms 10 is rotatably mounted on the center of the orbital gears 3, and each roller 1, 2 is mounted within the opposite spacing of the orbital gears. Located in

This embodiment uses a simple structure in which the pinch roller 2 is fixed and only the pinch roller 1 is moved.
Drive the small gear 1a to bring the roller 1 closer to 2,
A motor 16 for releasing the arm 10
It is installed on. The pinching roller 1 is loosely engaged with the shaft of the small gear 1a and is not actively driven to rotate, but an air hose 18 is connected to the shaft end on the opposite side to that driven by the motor 16 via a compressed air supply port 17. (FIG. 2), an expansion/contraction hose 19 for pushing out the picking blade 4 in the pinch roller 1 is made to be inflated as shown in FIG. 3.

The blades 4 are pushed out radially from the pinch roller 1 against the spring, and when the compressed air to the built-in hose 19 is released, the blades 4 retreat centripetally inward due to the restoring force of the spring 15 that connects each blade 4. do. Both pinch rollers 1 and 2
Pincer teeth 5 are attached to the outer periphery to securely hold the pod 14 in the mouth. Incidentally, the teeth 5 of the pinch roller 1 are provided between the blades 4.

However, even if the pinch roller 1 and its arm 10 in FIG. 1 move to the right and pinch the sheath 14, the third
Do not extend the blade 4 as shown in the figure. A motor 21 attached to the support arm 10 on the side of the pinch roller 2 rotates the pinch roller 2 in the direction of pulling up the sheath 14 (in the direction of rotation of the clock hands in FIG. 3). Since the sheath 14 is pressed between the driven pinch roller 2 and, in this example, the floating pinch roller 1, it is pulled upward as the motor 21 rotates.

When the fruit 9 pulled up together with the husk 14 reaches between the optical detectors 11 and 11a in this example, a detection signal is output and the motor 21 is stopped. Subsequently, compressed air is sent to the air hose 18 to inflate the expansion/contraction hose 19, and as shown in FIG.

The fruit 9 that is cut off in this way falls directly below,
Immediately below the picking section A, there is a pressing roller 6a of the packaging section B.
The attached circulation belt 6 spreads and supports one room of the joint bag 7 and waits.

In this example, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the joint bag 7 has a groove-shaped sheet 7a with a predetermined interval in the center on both sides of a groove-shaped sheet 7a whose side wall portions are folded into a bellows shape and become flat when pressed from above and below. Attach the fruit receiving hole 12 and the collar 13 with perforations 13a on both sides of the ceiling sheet 7.
Attach both side edges of b, and then add the ceiling sheet 7b.
The lower surface and the bottom surface of the grooved sheet 7a are connected to the fruit receiving hole 1.
They are connected by foldable partition sheets 7c at intervals of 2, and are partitioned into chambers that can accommodate one fruit.

This joint bag 7 is wrapped and stored in the lower part of the packaging part B as shown in FIG.
3 and is drawn out. The belt 6 has a small protrusion that engages with the perforation of the bag 7. However, even if there are no protrusions or perforations, there is no problem as long as the pressing force of the holding roller 6a is sufficient. The holding roller 6a has the function of sending the bag 7 along with the belt 6, the function of preventing the bag 7 from coming off from the belts 6, 6 on both sides due to the impact of the fall of the fruit 9, and the function of withstanding the weight of the fruit in the descending hose 8 and holding the bag. 7 to the belt 6.

The descending hose 8 can be rigid or flexible as long as the fruit passes through it.

The handle 22 supporting the packaging part B may be operated manually or by attaching it to a robot capable of image processing of fruit on the tree.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 6 shows that the picking section A is significantly different from that shown in FIG. That is, the pinch roller 1,
No. 2 has no pinching teeth 5 on the surface, and the non-slip surface of the rubber roller is directly pressed against the shell. The roller 1 rotates with play, and the roller 2 is rotated by a motor 21 to pull up the husk. The picking blade 4 is attached to a support drive device, such as a piston cylinder 4a, provided between the arms 10, 10 on both sides of the roller 2, and is operated by compressed air.

The pinching and opening operations of the pinching rollers 1 and 2 are performed by the link 23, the spindle 25 of the arm 10, and the fluid pressure cylinder 24.

A husk holder 26 is provided between the arms 10, 10 of the pinching roller 1 and protrudes to face the picking blade 4, making it easier to cut the husk and at the same time ensuring that the fruit 9 is not placed between the husk holder 26 or the blade 4. A mechanism is adopted in which when the blade hits, the resistance of the motor 21 that rotates the pulling roller 2 increases rapidly, stopping the drive and activating the blade 4.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above, and the present invention involves sandwiching a fruit pod between rollers, driving the rollers to pull up the pod so that the length of the pod is constant, and then cutting it. The two important requirements are receiving the cut fruit in a joint bag and lowering it to the ground one by one using a descending hose, and without changing the gist, it can be varied and applied in a variety of ways depending on the well-known technology of the machine designer. . For example, the mechanism for pinching the sheath between a pair of pinching rollers is not limited to the gears and link mechanism as in the above embodiment. The mechanism for detecting when the fruit approaches the rollers when the hut is pulled up by the sandwiched rollers may be any of various off-the-shelf detection devices, or may be structured to have a substantial detection function as in the case of Fig. 6. .

Furthermore, the joint bags used for packaging can be made of any material or shape, whether made of paper or soft resin film, as long as they can be pulled out and supported by a circulating belt with a restraining roller.

(Effects of the Invention) This invention has made it possible to cut the pods to a uniform length, which is difficult to do with a fruit thinning device on a tree. It is simple and reliable to use pinch rollers to pinch and pull up the fruit, bring the fruit close to the rollers, and then cut the fruit.

In addition, this invention does not cut off the fruit on the tree, but instead cuts the pod and spreads out a joint bag to support it where it falls, and when the fruit enters one room of the bag, it is sent one frame.
Fruits are packed one after another into the joint bags and guided to the ground one after another by a descending hose, so that no matter how ripe or soft the fruits are, they are silently sent to the storage location on the ground without coming into contact with each other.

This invention does not damage trees and fruits.
This is a ground-breaking device that meets all the requirements of horticulture farmers for a device that can automatically harvest fruit, and by adding an automatic operation device to this, it will become possible to create a complete fruit harvesting robot. It is expected that

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is an explanatory elevational view of one embodiment of this invention;
3 is a cross-sectional view of the pinch roller, FIG. 4 is a plan view of the joint bag, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the bag, and FIG. FIG. A... picking section, B... packaging section, 1, 2... pinching roller, 4... picking blade, 7... joint bag, 8... descending hose, 11, 11a... detection device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A harvesting device that repeatedly approaches and moves fruit on a tree by manual or mechanical operation, comprising a picking section in the upper part and a packaging part in the lower part, and the picking part has a picking part in the upper part and a packaging part in the lower part. A pair of pinching rollers that pinch the pod in a manner that holds the pod, and a supporting drive mechanism for the pod; a drive mechanism that drives one or both of the rollers to pull up the pod until the fruit approaches the rollers; A detection mechanism that detects the approach, and a pod cutting mechanism provided in the pinch roller support mechanism or the roller so as to operate when the pod stops being pulled up, the packaging section having a predetermined interval in the center of the upper side. A long chain bag with fruit receiving holes placed thereon, a circulation belt with pressing rollers for intermittent driving of the chain bags provided on both sides directly below the picking section, a bag supply section that feeds the long chain bags to this belt, and the above-mentioned bag supply section. A fruit harvesting device characterized by being equipped with a descending hose that successively guides the above-mentioned joint bag that has received fruits that have fallen between the belts on both sides to the ground.