JPH0488917A - Guidance device for fruit and vegetable harvesting machines - 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 Field of Application] The present invention provides a hand equipped with a vacuum pad that sucks an object to be harvested, an imaging means for taking an image of the object to be harvested, and an image processing method for image information of the imaging means. image processing means for determining a specific color area corresponding to the color to be harvested and a highlight area whose brightness is greater than a set value within the specific color area; The present invention relates to a guidance device for a fruit and vegetable harvesting machine, which is provided with a control means for guiding the hand so as to move the vacuum pad toward the highlight area.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, images are taken with the hand set at a preset approach start position, and the hand is approached straight in the direction of the highlight area obtained by processing the captured image information. was.

Then, the fruit and vegetables that are approached are absorbed into the hand, and the handle is cut and harvested.

[Invention or problem to be solved]

With the above-mentioned conventional technology, when harvesting fruits and vegetables that are partially shielded by leaves, etc., there is a risk that the fruits and vegetables may not be harvested successfully because the leaves or the like get in the way and the fruits and vegetables cannot be properly adsorbed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and provide a guidance device for a fruit and vegetable harvesting machine that is highly reliable when harvesting partially shielded fruits and vegetables.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve this object, the guiding device for a fruit and vegetable harvesting machine according to the present invention has a characteristic configuration that includes a direction changing mechanism that changes and adjusts the direction of the vacuum pad with respect to the main body of the hand. The imaging processing means is configured to determine a positional shift of the highlight area with respect to the center or center of gravity of the specific color area in a specific direction, and the control unit is configured to adjust the orientation of the vacuum pad to The hand is configured to guide the hand after operating the direction changing means so as to direct the hand in a direction opposite to the positional deviation.

[For production]

If the harvesting target can be imaged without being obscured by leaves or the like, the highlight area is considered to be near the center of the specific color area. However, if a portion of the area is blocked by leaves or the like, the highlight area will be shifted in the direction of the leaves or the like from the center or center of gravity of the specific color area.

By the way, in order to accurately attract the object to be harvested and to cut the handle, it is necessary that no leaves or the like should be interposed between the vacuum pad and the object to be harvested.

Therefore, if it is detected that a part of the harvest target is blocked due to the positional deviation, the direction of the vacuum pad is operated in the opposite direction to the positional deviation, as shown in Figure 1 (N). Then, by approaching the harvested object with the hand, it is possible to perform suction operation while removing obstacles from the side of the vacuum pad.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Even when harvesting fruit and vegetables that are partially shielded, the fruit and vegetables can be adsorbed without removing the shield, so a guidance device for a fruit and vegetable harvesting machine with high reliability of harvesting operation can be obtained. .

〔Example〕

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a guidance device for a fruit harvesting machine will be described based on the drawings.

As shown in Fig. 5, a boom (2) is attached to a vehicle body (V) equipped with a pair of left and right running wheels (1) at the front and rear so that it can be driven up and down and rotated, and the tip of the boom (2) An auxiliary boom (3) is attached to the auxiliary boom (3) so as to be able to swing freely in the horizontal direction, and a working manipulator (4) equipped with a fruit harvesting hand (H) is attached to the auxiliary boom (3).
attached to the tip of the

In the figure, (5) is the hydraulic cylinder for raising and lowering the boom, (6)
(7) is a hydraulic cylinder for swinging the boom, and (7) is a hydraulic cylinder for swinging the auxiliary boom.

The working manipulator (4) consists of a multi-joint telescopic arm (8) and a hand (H) attached to the tip of the telescopic arm (8).

The telescopic arm (8) is powered by an electric motor (9a).
It is rotated around the vertical axis (Y) by the electric motor (9b), swung around the horizontal axis (X) by the electric motor (9b), and expanded and contracted by the electric motor (9C). It is configured.

To explain the hand (H), as shown in FIG.
), a vacuum pad (10) for adsorbing fruit (10), a trapping part case (12) for covering the fruit (F) adsorbed to the suction port (10a) of the vacuum pad (10),
A handle cutting device (13) is provided which cuts the handle part of the fruit (F) taken into the trapping part case (12) while holding it in the vertical direction.

To explain the vacuum pad (10), as shown in FIG. It is configured so that the direction can be changed freely. As shown in Fig. 6, the inner surface of the bellows part (10b) is tapered so that the inner diameter of the bellows part becomes larger on the front side, so as not to obstruct the field of view of the image sensor (S1), which will be described later. ing.

Further, the suction port (10a) at the tip is urged back forward. To explain, the frame body (2o) is movable in the front and back direction with respect to the ventilation pipe (11), and the frame body (20
) and an air cylinder (21) that moves the frame body (21) in and out.
0), the connecting culm (
22), three of each are provided. Each frame (20
) are arranged every 1200 on the same circumference. In addition, the tip (22a) of the connecting culm (22) is connected to the spring (2
3), and its tip (22a)
or attached to the suction port (10a). As a result, the suction port (10a) is urged back forward, and by simultaneously moving the three air cylinders (21) in and out, the ventilation pipe (1) is opened with the suction port (10a) facing forward.
1) It is now possible to send or leave a member.

Also, by retiring one or two air cylinders (21) and extending the other air cylinders (21), the direction of the vacuum pad (10) can be changed to the direction of the ventilation pipe (11).
) can be changed and adjusted. In other words,
The air cylinder (21) corresponds to the direction changing means.

The trapping part case (12) includes the vacuum pad (
10) retires to the rear side of the hand so as not to interfere with the approach until the fruit (F) is absorbed by the vacuum pad (10), and after the vacuum pad (10) has absorbed the fruit (F), the absorbed fruit ( In order to protrude toward the front side of the hand so as to cover F), the vacuum pad (10) is externally fitted and supported on the ventilation pipe (11) of the vacuum pad (10) so as to be freely movable in the front and rear directions.

The ventilation pipe (11) is a bellows-type hose (14) (
(see FIG. 5), and is connected via piping to a suction pump (17) mounted on the vehicle body (V) side.

The handle cutting device (13) includes a clipper-shaped blade (13a) for cutting the handle of the fruit (F), and a blade (13a) for cutting the handle of the fruit (F).
) and a handle support member (13b) that presses and supports the handle of the fruit (F) from below.

However, although not described in detail, the hand (H) includes an actuator for operating the harvesting part, such as an actuator for moving the trapping part case (12) in and out, and an actuator for driving the handle cutting device (13). Various pneumatic actuators, a negative pressure sensor (SS) that detects that the fruit (F) has been adsorbed to the vacuum pad (10) (see Figure 2), and detection of the exit/retraction position of the trapping part case (12). Various sensors such as a sensor for detecting the driving state of the handle cutting device (13) and a sensor for detecting the driving state of the handle cutting device (13) will be provided.

In FIG. 1(A), (S1) is the working hand (H).
), a color image sensor is used as an imaging means to take an image of the fruit (F) located in the direction facing toward It is a reflective proximity sensor that uses infrared light to detect proximity, and both sensors (S1) and (S2
) is provided inside the vacuum pad (10) so as not to interfere with approach and fruit harvesting. (15) is the image sensor (S1)
This is a lighting device for illuminating the front side of the hand (H) with a set amount of light in synchronization with the imaging process, and generally a so-called strobe light emitting device is used.

Then, the catching part case (12) is retired to the rear side of the hand, and the suction port (10) of the vacuum pad (10) is removed.
a) positioning the working hand (H) at an approach start position as a preset initial position in a state where the handle protrudes further forward than the catching part case (12), and
The image sensor (S1) captures and processes an image in the direction in which the fruit (P) to be harvested is located, and guides the working hand (H) based on information obtained by image processing the captured image information. This is to determine the direction of approach.

After determining the approach direction, the work hand (H
), each of the electric motors (9a), (9b),
(9c), and the proximity sensor (S2
) detects the fruit (F), the vacuum pad (10) is operated to attract the fruit (F) to be harvested, and the trapping part case (12) is protruded and the inside of the fruit (F) is protruded. After the fruit (F) is taken in, the stalk is cut and harvested.

However, as will be described in detail later, after the proximity sensor (S2) is activated, the working hand (H) is moved to the proximity sensor (S2).
If the negative pressure sensor (S3) does not operate while the negative pressure sensor (S3) is moved forward by the set distance that 2) is activated, it is determined that the harvest has failed, and the harvesting is restarted from the position where the set distance was moved back to the front side. An image is captured, and based on the captured image information, the direction of the vacuum pad (10) is corrected and re-approached.

Next, based on the image information captured by the image sensor (S1), the direction in which the fruit (F) is located, that is, the hand (H)
A control configuration for determining the approach direction of the hand (H) and guiding the hand (H) will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, an image processing means (100) performs image processing on image information captured by the image sensor (S1) to determine the direction in which the fruit to be harvested (F) is located; ), controlling each of the hydraulic cylinders (5), (6), (7) and each of the electric motors (9a), (9b), (9c) based on the information of
Move your hand (H) from the approach start position to the fruit to be harvested (
A microcomputer-based control device (16) constituting each of the control means (101) for guiding the sensor (s+
), (S2), (SS), the air cylinder (21
), and each of the hydraulic cylinders (5), (6), (
7) and each electric motor (9a), (9b), (9c)
or connected.

Next, the operation of the control device (16) will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, as shown in Fig. 1 (b), the hand (H) is set at a preset approach start position, all air cylinders (21) are retired, image processing is performed, and the captured image information is By image processing, a specific color area (F1) corresponding to the color of the fruit (F) and its specific color area (F1
), the highlight area (F2) whose brightness is greater than the set value and the center of gravity (W2) of the highlight area (F2)
) (see Figure 4 (a) and (b)).

Based on the size of the highlight area (F2), the approach direction of the hand (H) is set so that the hand (H) is moved in the direction where the center of gravity (W2) of the object with the largest size is located. is determined and the telescopic arm (8
) will be extended.

After starting to extend the telescoping arm (8), the proximity sensor (
Based on the information in S2), it is determined whether or not the hand (H) has approached the fruit to be harvested (F) by the set distance, and as the hand (H) approaches within the set distance, the telescopic arm (8) is switched to a low speed, the suction operation of the vacuum pad (10) is started, and the hand (H
) to the fruit side.

When the negative pressure sensor (S3) is turned on and detects fruit adsorption, the telescopic arm (8) is stopped and the harvesting operation is started (see FIG. 1 (c)).

However, if the negative pressure sensor (S3) does not operate after moving the set distance after the proximity sensor (S2) turns ON, it is determined that the harvest has failed and the hand ( H) is once returned to the position where the proximity sensor (S2) was turned ON, and from that position, the image capturing process is performed again and the approach is made again.

To explain the re-approach, as shown in Figure 4 (c), if there is a positional deviation between the center of gravity (W2) of the highlight area (F2) with respect to the center of gravity (W1) of the specific color area (F1), , as shown in Fig. 1 (*) and (v), operate the direction changing means (21) to move the vacuum pad (1)
0) is changed to the direction opposite to the positional deviation and then approached again.

Fruit (F) by first approach or re-approach
is successfully harvested, return the working hand (H) to the approach start position while holding the fruit (F) with the stalk cut off in the catching part case (12),
The fruit (F) will be discharged.

After discharging the harvested fruits (F), it is determined whether the work is complete or not based on the number of specific color areas (F1) and highlight areas (F2) extracted from the first captured image information at the approach start position. If the work is not completed, the work hand (H) is reset to the approach start position and image processing is performed, and the remaining fruit (F
), and the process of guiding the working hand (H) toward the determined approach direction is repeated.

[Another example]

In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a guidance device for a fruit harvesting working machine, but the present invention can also be applied to various fruit and vegetable working machines, such as a tomato and other vegetable harvesting machine. Therefore, the specific configuration of each part, such as the specific configuration of the hand (H), can be changed in various ways.

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 guidance device for a fruit and vegetable harvesting machine according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 (a) to (f) are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the hand, FIG. 4(4), (a), (c) are explanatory diagrams of image processing, FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of the harvester, and FIG.
The figure is a longitudinal side view of the vacuum pad. (10)...Vacuum pad, (21)...
... Direction changing means, (100) ... Image processing means, (101) ... Control means, (H) ...
...Hand, (F1) ...Specific color area, (
F2)... Highlight area, (S1)...
...Imaging means, (W1)... Center of gravity. (B)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A hand (H) equipped with a vacuum pad (10) for adsorbing a harvested object, and an imaging means (S) for taking an image of the harvested object.
_1), a specific color area (F) corresponding to the color of the harvest target by image processing the imaging information of the imaging means (S_1), and a brightness greater than a set value within the specific color area (F). an image processing means (100) for determining a highlight region (F_2), and moving the vacuum pad (10) toward the highlight region (F_2) based on information from the image processing means (100); A guidance device for a fruit and vegetable harvesting machine, which is provided with a control means (101) for guiding the hand (H) in such a manner that the direction of the vacuum pad (10) is controlled by the hand (H).
) direction changing means (21) for changing and adjusting the direction with respect to the main body of the device;
is provided, and the imaging processing means (100) is configured to capture the center or center of gravity (
The control means (101) is configured to obtain a positional shift of the highlight area (F_2) with respect to W_1);
The fruit and vegetable harvesting apparatus is configured to operate the direction changing means (21) so as to orient the vacuum pad (10) in a direction opposite to the positional deviation, and then guide the hand (H). The aircraft's guidance system.