Lawn mowing vehicle with a control unit for elevating mechanisms and for rotating a blade depending on grass condition

• US 9,084,391 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2014
• Issued: 07/21/2015
• 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: Shida, Michinori, Iwasaki, Ikuo, Hasegawa, Fumio, Sudoh, Takaaki, Kaneko, Takushi
• Primary Examiner(s): Fbin-Kovcs, Arpd
• Application Number:
  US14/334,707
• Publication Number:
  US 20140325949A1
• Time in Patent Office: 368 Days
• Field of Search: 701/25, 701/50, 180/19.2, 56/171, 56/158, 56/7, 562/94, 562/49, 56/147, 172/452
• 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); sensors (34a-34c) for detecting the travel speed of the vehicle; sensors for detecting the state of the lawn; and a control device (37) for controlling the electric cylinder (26a-26c) according to the result of the detection by the sensors (34a-34c) to thereby control the elevation position of the electric reel (22) and for controlling whether or not to rotate the electric reel (22) on the basis of the detected results of the sensors for detecting the state of the lawn.

Claims

1. 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;

a touch panel type display device that includes;

a selection unit that selects an elevating reel unit from among the first and second reel units,

an input unit that inputs an instruction of a worker, and

a display unit that shows a current state of the lawn mowing vehicle; and

a control unit that controls the first and second elevating mechanisms, individually elevates the first and second reel units, and controls elevation of the reel unit selected by the selection unit,

wherein the display device is able to receive input of a plurality of modes.

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