LAWN MOWING VEHICLE

• US 20130047565A1
• Filed: 10/26/2010
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IHI Agri-Tech Corp (IHI Corporation)
• Original Assignee: IHI Corporation, IHI Shibaura Machinery Corporation (IHI Corporation)
• Inventors: Hasegawa, Fumio, Shida, Michinori, Iwasaki, Ikuo, Sudoh, Takaaki, Kaneko, Takushi
• Granted Patent: US 8,621,833 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 56/10.2H
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 34/006 Control or measuring arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 34/44 with two or more cutters
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 34/54 Cutting-height adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 34/58 electric
• CPC Class Codes: E02F 9/26 Indicating devices E02F5/145 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 21/02 for measuring length, width, or thickness G01B21/10 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 3/64 Devices characterised by the determination of the time taken to traverse a fixed distance
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/182 characterised by the machine tool function, e.g. thread cutting, cam making, tool direction control G05B19/21 - G05B19/40 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45044 Cutting

Abstract

A lawn moving vehicle (1) is for movwing lawn along the travel path of the vehicle. The lawn moving vehicle (1) includes: at least one electric reel unit having an electric reel (22) driven by a motor (24); sensors (34a-34c) for detecting the travel speed of the vehicle; and a control device (37) for controlling the motor (24) according to the result of the detection by the sensors (34a-34c) to thereby control the rotational speed of the electric reel (22) provided to the electric reel unit.

Claims

1. A lawn mowing vehicle that mows a lawn along a travel path, comprising:

at least one electric reel unit having a rotating blade driven by a motor;

a speed detection unit detecting a traveling speed of the vehicle; and

a control unit that controls the motor depending on the detected result of the speed detection unit, thereby controlling a rotational speed of the rotating blade installed on the electric reel unit, wherein

the rotating blade is configured so that a rotational shaft thereof is set in a leftward/rightward direction of the vehicle with respect to a traveling direction, and the speed detection unit detects the traveling speed of the vehicle on the basis of revolutions per unit time of wheels installed on the vehicle and effective diameters of the corresponding wheels.

2. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 1, wherein,

when the revolutions per unit time of a plurality of wheels installed on the vehicle are different, the speed detection unit obtains an average value of the revolutions per unit time of the plurality of wheels.

3. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 1, wherein

the control unit controls a rotational speed of the rotating blade on the basis of a number of blades of the electric reel unit and a mowing pitch of the lawn which is arbitrarily set in advance in addition to the detected result of the speed detection unit.

4. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 1, wherein

the control unit controls a rotational speed of the rotating blade so that the rotational speed of the rotating blade is proportional to the detected result of the speed detection unit.

5. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 1, wherein

the control unit controls a rotational speed of the rotating blade so that the rotational speed of the rotating blade varies step-by-step with respect to the detected result of the speed detection unit.

6. A lawn mowing vehicle having first and second reel units disposed at positions that are different from each other in a frontward/rearward direction thereof with respect to a traveling direction, the lawn mowing vehicle comprising:

a first elevating mechanism that elevates the first reel unit using an electric actuator;

a second elevating mechanism that elevates the second reel unit using an electric actuator;

a speed detection unit that detects a traveling speed of the vehicle; and

a control unit that controls the first and second elevating mechanisms depending on the detected result of the speed detection unit so that an elevating position of the first reel unit is consistent with that of the second reel unit, wherein

the first and second reel units are electric reel units, each of which has a rotating blade driven by a motor and is configured so that a rotational shaft of the rotating blade is set in the leftward/rightward direction that intersects the traveling direction of the vehicle, and the control unit changes a time from when the first reel unit begins to be elevated to when the second reel unit begins to be elevated depending to the detected result of the speed detection unit.

7. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 6, further comprising an input unit that inputs an instruction of whether or not to perform automatic elevation control that is control of matching elevating positions of the first and second reel units with each other, wherein

the control unit performs the automatic elevation control when the instruction to perform the automatic elevation control is received from the input unit.

8. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 7, wherein,

when there is no instruction to perform the automatic elevation control, the control unit controls the first and second reel units so as to be individually elevated depending on the instruction input from the input unit.

9. A lawn mowing vehicle having at least one of first and second reel units disposed at positions that are different from each other in a leftward/rightward direction thereof with respect to a traveling direction, the lawn mowing vehicle comprising:

a first elevating mechanism that elevates the first reel unit using an electric actuator;

a second elevating mechanism that elevates the second reel unit using an electric actuator; and

a control unit that controls the first and second elevating mechanisms and individually elevates the first and second reel units, wherein

the vehicle includes a selection unit that selects an elevating reel unit from among the first and second reel units, and the control unit performs control of elevating the reel unit selected by the selection unit.

10. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 9, wherein:

the first and second reel units include a detection sensor that detects a state of grass that has not yet been mowed by the rotating blade; and

the control unit controls whether or not to rotate the rotating blade of the reel unit lowered depending on the detected result of the detection sensor.