LAWN MOWING VEHICLE WITH AT LEAST ONE REEL UNIT

• US 20150282424A1
• Filed: 06/23/2015
• Published: 10/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: IHI Corporation, IHI Shibaura Machinery Corporation (IHI Corporation)
• Original Assignee: IHI Corporation, IHI Shibaura Machinery Corporation (IHI Corporation)
• Inventors: SHIDA, Michinori, IWASAKI, Ikuo, HASEGAWA, Fumio, SUDOH, Takaaki, KANEKO, Takushi
• Application Number:
  US14/747,484
• Publication Number:
  US 20150282424A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 mowing vehicle (1) mows a lawn along the travel path of the vehicle. The lawn mowing vehicle (1) includes: at least one electric reel unit having an electric reel (22) raised and lowered by an electric cylinder (26a-26c).

Claims

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

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

a detection sensor that detects a state of grass that has not yet been mowed by the rotating blade;

a data processing unit that performs a predetermined process on the detected result of the detection sensor and generates growth data indicating a growth situation of the lawn; and

a display unit that displays the growth data generated by the data processing unit.

2. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the detection sensor is installed in front of the rotating blade inside the electric reel unit, and detects at least one of the height of the grass, the color of the grass, and the standing state of the grass.

3. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined process performed by the data processing unit is a process of generating a state map, which indicates the state of the lawn at each place at which the lawn is mowed each time the lawn is mowed.

4. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 1, further including an environmental sensor that detects at least one of temperature and humidity,

wherein the data processing unit performs a process of including the detected result of the environmental sensor in the growth data.

5. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the electric reel unit is configured so that a rotational shaft of the rotating blade is set in a leftward/rightward direction that intersects the traveling direction of the vehicle.

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 including:

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.

7. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 6, wherein 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.

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

9. A lawn mowing vehicle having 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 thereof, the lawn mowing vehicle including:

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 to individually elevate the first and second reel units.

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

11. The lawn mowing vehicle according to claim 10, wherein the control unit performs control of rotating the rotating blade of the lowered reel unit of the first and second reel units.