Sugar cane harvester

Abstract

To provide a sugar cane harvester allowing for grasping a content state of sugar canes and contaminants from a captured image in a topper during harvesting operation.SOLUTION: A sugar cane harvester includes: a reaping part which is provided on a machine body front part and reaps planted sugar canes; a transport device transporting sugar canes reaped by the reaping part to a machine body rear part; a separation unit which separates, by a ventilation action of a blower, contaminants such as fine dust of culms and leave pieces contained in sugar cane culms charged by the transport device; a hopper receiving the sugar canes from the separation unit and temporarily stores them; a camera 9A capturing images of an inner part of the hopper; and an estimation part 90 analyzing captured images of the camera 9A and estimating content rate of the contaminants.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a sugarcane harvester equipped with a separation device that separates impurities such as fine stem and culm waste and leaf fragments contained in sugarcane harvested by a harvesting unit. [Background technology]

[0002] A monitor camera system is used in sugarcane harvesters so that the status of harvesting work can be confirmed from the driver's cab. The sugarcane harvester disclosed in Patent Document 1 is equipped with a backup camera that takes pictures of the rear of the machine body, a hopper camera that takes pictures of the state of sugarcane being received in the hopper of the separation device, and a conveyor camera that takes pictures of the loading status of sugarcane when the sugarcane accumulated in the hopper is discharged into a transport truck. The images taken by each camera are displayed on a monitor located in the driver's section, so the driver can understand the status of the harvesting work while traveling by looking at the monitor screen. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2021-101180 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] It is a burden for the operator of a sugarcane harvester to check the status of the harvesting work by looking at a monitor screen while driving the harvesting work, and there is a possibility that the operator may miss an abnormal situation that is indicated on the monitor screen. Furthermore, even if the operator pays close attention to the monitor screen, it requires considerable skill and experience to determine the separation quality of the sugarcane and impurities in the separator, for example, from an image captured by a hopper camera displayed on the monitor.

[0005] In view of the above-described situation, an object of the present invention is to provide a sugarcane harvester that can grasp the state of sugarcane and impurities such as fine stem and culm waste and leaf fragments contained therein from images taken inside the hopper while the machine is traveling during harvesting operations. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The sugarcane harvester according to the present invention comprises a cutting unit provided at the front of the machine body for cutting planted sugarcane, a conveying device for conveying the sugarcane cut by the cutting unit towards the rear of the machine body, a separating device for separating impurities such as fine stem and culm waste and leaf fragments contained in the sugarcane stems and culms fed from the conveying device by the ventilation action of a blower and discharging them to the outside, a hopper for receiving the sugarcane from the separating device and temporarily storing it, a camera for photographing the inside of the hopper, and an estimation unit for estimating the content of the impurities by analyzing the images taken by the camera.

[0007] With this configuration, by analyzing the image (hopper image) taken by a camera that photographs the inside of the hopper, it is possible to estimate how much impurities (fine stem and culm waste, leaf fragments, etc.) are contained in the sugarcane stored in the hopper. In other words, an estimation calculation model (estimation unit) that distinguishes between sugarcane and impurities and outputs data showing their ratios by image recognition of the input hopper image is built into the sugarcane harvester's control system or a device that can communicate with the sugarcane harvester. This solves the problem of the driver (or dedicated operator) having to judge the state of the sugarcane and impurities while looking at the hopper image displayed on a monitor, which requires experience and skill.

[0008] Once the proportion (content) of impurities contained in the sugarcane stored in the hopper can be estimated, equipment control is performed to reduce the content according to the content. A factor that has a significant impact on the proportion of impurities contained in the sugarcane stored in the hopper is the strength (air volume) of the wind generated by the blower and passing through the separator. For this reason, the present invention proposes providing a blower control unit that controls the rotation speed of the blower according to the content estimated by the estimation unit.

[0009] It has been experimentally and empirically confirmed that the greater the volume of air produced by the blower and passing through the separator, the smaller the proportion (content) of impurities contained in the sugarcane stored in the hopper. For this reason, in the present invention, the blower control unit is provided with a control function that increases the rotation speed of the blower as the content increases.

[0010] Another factor that significantly affects the percentage of impurities contained in the sugarcane stored in the hopper is the traveling speed (vehicle speed) of the sugarcane harvester. The number of sugarcanes harvested per unit time by the harvesting unit changes depending on the vehicle speed, which in turn affects the separation performance of the separator. In other words, the fewer sugarcanes fed into the separator, the better the separation performance tends to be. For this reason, the present invention also proposes providing a traveling control unit that adjusts the vehicle speed depending on the impurity content estimated by the estimation unit.

[0011] When the traveling speed of the sugarcane harvester is reduced, the number of sugarcanes fed into the separator per unit time is reduced, the separation performance of the separator is improved, and the impurity content is reduced. Therefore, in the present invention, the traveling control unit reduces the vehicle speed as the impurity content increases.

[0012] Furthermore, one of the factors that significantly affects the proportion (content) of impurities contained in the sugarcane stored in the hopper is the position of the topper when it cuts off the leaves from the stalks. For example, if the leaves of the sugarcane cut off by the topper are too short, the unexpectedly long stalks (resulting in a high content of leaves) will deteriorate the separation performance of the separator (increasing the content). Conversely, if the leaves of the sugarcane cut off by the topper are too long, even if the content is low, the problem arises that the stalks that are useful for sugarcane are lost. In other words, the height and content of the topper affect the sugarcane harvesting performance. For this reason, the present invention proposes a topper control unit that controls the position of the topper, which is located above the harvesting unit, so as to cut off the upper leaves of the sugarcane, and that controls the topper position of the topper according to the content estimated by the estimation unit.

[0013] Generally, when the topper is lowered (the cutting position is lowered), the amount of impurities fed into the separation device decreases, and the content rate increases. For this reason, the present invention also proposes that the topper control unit has a function of lowering the topper as the content rate increases.

[0014] The information on the content rate is an important control factor for equipment control such as topper height control and vehicle speed control, whether manual or automatic operation is performed, and therefore it is advantageous to notify the driver of the information on the content rate. For this reason, the present invention proposes that the content rate information based on the content rate estimated by the estimation unit be notified by a notification device. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a left side view of the sugarcane harvester. [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a plan view of a sugarcane harvester. [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is a front view of a sugarcane harvester. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a plan cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a separation device. [Figure 5]FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a separating device and a post-conveying device. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a control system of the sugarcane harvester. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing an estimation unit in the camera unit and the use of the impurity content estimated by the estimation unit. [Figure 8] This is a photograph showing the accumulation of stalks and debris in the hopper. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0016] A sugarcane harvester, which is an example of a harvester according to the present invention, will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, unless otherwise specified, the direction of arrow F in the drawings will be referred to as the "front side," the direction of arrow B as the "rear side," the direction of arrow U as the "upper side," the direction of arrow D as the "lower side," the direction of arrow R as the "right side," and the direction of arrow L as the "left side."

[0017] [Overall structure] As shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3, the sugarcane harvester comprises a body 1, a traveling device 2 that supports the body 1, a cutting unit 3 that is provided at the front of the body and cuts the planted sugarcane, a conveying device 4 that transports the sugarcane harvested by the cutting unit 3 toward the rear of the body, a separating device 7 that uses a sorting wind to separate the sugarcane main body (the harvested sugarcane) from impurities (fine stem and culm waste, leaf fragments, etc.), a rear conveying device 6 that transports the sugarcane main body supplied from the separating device 7 rearward and then discharges it to the outside, a driving unit 10 in which the driver rides, a topper 8 that is provided above the cutting unit 3 so as to cut the upper leaves of the sugarcane, and an engine E supported by the body 1.

[0018] The traveling device 2 includes left and right front wheels 21 and left and right rear wheels 22 located rearward of the front wheels 21. The rear wheels 22 are supported by an axle case connected to the vehicle body 1. Power from the engine E is transmitted to the left and right rear wheels 22 via a transmission.

[0019] The front wheels 21 are steerable wheels and are non-drive wheels to which power from the engine E is not transmitted.

[0020] The reaping unit 3 is provided with left and right dividing bodies 31 for separating the sugarcane to be reaped from the sugarcane to be left in the field, left and right dividers 32 for separating the sugarcane to be reaped from the sugarcane to be left in the field, an arm 33 for supporting the divider 32 on the machine body 1 in a state in which it can swing up and down, a knocking device 38 for knocking down the sugarcane forward, and a cutting blade 39 for cutting the base of the sugarcane knocked down by the knocking device 38.

[0021] The transport device 4 is supported by the machine body 1 in a rear-up tilted position. Specifically, the lower part of the transport device 4 is supported by the machine body 1. In addition, the rear part of the transport device 4 is supported by the machine body 1 via an axle case or a transmission located below the rear part of the transport device 4.

[0022] The front part of the conveying device 4 is connected to the rear part of the reaping unit 3. As a result, the sugarcane harvested by the reaping unit 3 is transported by the conveying device 4 toward the rear of the machine body, more specifically, upward in the rear direction of the machine body 1.

[0023] The separator 7 is connected to the rear of the conveying device 4. The sugarcane transported by the conveying device 4 is shredded at the end of the conveying path of the conveying device 4 and supplied to the separator 7. The sugarcane supplied to the separator 7 falls downward from the end of the conveying path of the conveying device 4 while passing through the inside of the separator 7. The sugarcane passing through the separator 7 is sorted by the sorting wind blowing impurities outside the machine body 1. The sorted harvested sugarcane falls to the front of the rear conveying device 6.

[0024] The rear conveying device 6 extends diagonally upward and rearward in a rear-upward tilted position. The rear conveying device 6 conveys the sugarcane in an upward and rearward direction. The conveyed sugarcane is discharged to the outside of the machine body 1 from a discharge site provided at the rear of the rear conveying device 6.

[0025] [Topper] As shown in FIG. 1, the topper 8 extends further forward from above the reaping unit 3. The topper 8 includes a support arm 81 connected to the front end region of the machine body 1 so as to be able to swing up and down about a transverse axis, and a cutter 82 provided at the tip of the support arm 81 (see FIG. 3). The support arm 81 moves up and down by the extension and contraction of a hydraulic lifting cylinder 83 that functions as a topper lifting actuator. Although not shown in detail, the cutter 82 has a rotary blade that is rotatably supported about an axis along the vertical direction, and this rotary blade is rotationally driven by a hydraulic motor.

[0026] [Separation device] The separating device 7 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. As shown in Figure 5, the separation device 7 comprises a hood section 71, a case section 70, and a blower 72. After the sugarcane stalks are cut by cutting rollers 4A (see Figure 5) at the end of the conveying device 4, the sugarcane shreds are fed into the case section 70 at a discharge angle of approximately 45 degrees. The blower 72 is configured to rotate about a vertical axis X1 by rotation of a hydraulic motor 72M. The lower end of the case section 70 opens downward. The blower 72 is installed in the internal space between the hood section 71 and the case section 70. The case section 70 separates impurities mixed in with the sugarcane shreds (hereinafter simply referred to as sugarcane) that are fed into it, and guides only the impurities upward while guiding the sugarcane downward. The hood section 71 discharges the impurities from the side.

[0027] 4, the case 70 is formed in a cylindrical shape in a plan view, and the inner surface of the case 70 has a circular cross-sectional shape centered on the vertical axis X1. A connection port connected to the conveyance end of the conveyance device 4 is formed at the front of the outer periphery of the case 70.

[0028] The blower 72 is provided inside the case 70 and rotates around a vertical axis X1 passing through the center of the circle to generate a sorting wind. The vertical axis X1 is the central axis of the blower 72. An intake section is formed at the bottom of the case 70, through which the blower 72 generates a sorting wind. The sorting wind rises while swirling upward. The sugarcane fed into the case 70 is subjected to the suction action of the blower 72, and relatively light impurities such as fine stalks and leaf fragments are sucked upward. The impurities then pass through the blower 72 and are discharged to the outside through the hood 71. The hood 71 is provided above the case 70 so as to be rotatable around the vertical axis X1, allowing the direction in which the impurities are discharged to be changed. The vertical axis X1 is the rotation axis of the hood 71. The sugarcane, which is heavier than the impurities, falls directly downward without being sucked by the blower 72.

[0029] The case portion 70 extends downward below the connection between the conveying device 4 and the separating device 7. A scattering prevention chain 70C is connected to the lower end of the case portion 70, and the scattering prevention chain 70C hangs down to near the upper end of the hopper 19. The scattering prevention chain 70C is connected to the periphery of the rear half of the cylindrically formed case portion 70. This prevents the sugarcane fed from the conveying device 4 into the case portion 70 from spilling outside the hopper 19.

[0030] As shown in Fig. 4, two openings 73 are provided on the outer periphery of the case 70, and the openings 73 are provided on the left and right sides of the vertical axis X1. As the blower 72 is rotated, air inside the case 70 is sucked in by the blower 72. At this time, outside air is sucked in through each of the openings 73 in addition to the intake section, which is the open portion at the bottom end of the case 70. The openings 73 are formed in the outer periphery wall of the case 70 in the extension direction of the vertical axis X1.

[0031] A dustproof member is provided in the air passage of the opening 73. The dustproof member is composed of multiple round bars that extend vertically and are provided in the terminal area of ​​the air passage. When outside air is drawn in through the opening 73, the outside air flows between the multiple round bars, making it easy for foreign matter to get caught on the multiple round bars. This makes it difficult for foreign matter such as dust to be drawn into the case 70 from the opening 73.

[0032] The outside air from each opening 73 is drawn into the case 70 while being straightened to flow tangentially to the outer periphery of the case 70, and flows along the cylindrical inner circumferential sidewall of the case 70. In other words, as the blower 72 rotates, an upward swirling flow is likely to occur around the inner periphery of the case 70. However, the configuration in which the tangentially straightened air is drawn through each opening 73 makes the swirling flow stronger than a configuration without openings 73. As a result, even if the impurities become clumped, the clumped impurities are thoroughly broken down into dust by the swirling flow. This makes it easier for the impurities to collect in the inner circumferential region of the case 70, and for the sugarcane to collect in the outer circumferential region of the case 70. The ventilation action of the blower 72 separates impurities such as stalks, stalks, and leaf fragments from the sugarcane and discharges them to the outside.

[0033] The structure of the blower 72 will be described in detail. The blower 72 includes a blower body 72A, a shaft 72S, a cylindrical shaft case 72K, and a hydraulic motor 72M. The hydraulic motor 72M is located above the hood portion 71, and the shaft case 72K extends vertically inside the hood portion 71. The hydraulic motor 72M and the shaft case 72K are each connected to the support portion 70S with bolts.

[0034] The shaft 72S is inserted into the shaft case 72K. The upper and lower ends of the shaft 72S are supported by the shaft case 72K via ball bearings. This allows the shaft 72S to rotate inside the shaft case 72K. The upper end of the shaft 72S is spline-connected to the output shaft of the hydraulic motor 72M. The lower part of the shaft 72S is spline-connected to the rotation center of the blower body 72A.

[0035] The hood portion 71 is provided with a hood body 71A and a bottom member 71B, and the hood body 71A and the bottom member 71B are connected to each other with bolts. The hood portion 71 rotates around a vertical axis X1.

[0036] [Hopper] The hopper 19 receives the short cut sugarcane from the separator 7 and temporarily stores it. The hopper 19 is located between the separation device 7 and the front end of the rear conveying device 6, which extends into the area below the separation device 7. An accepting opening is formed at the top of the front end of the rear conveying device 6 to accept the sugar cane that has fallen from the separation device 7. The hopper 19 is semicircular in plan view. The lower end of the hopper 19 surrounds the front, right, and left parts of the accepting opening, from which the hopper 19 rises. The hopper 19 is provided with a side cover 19B. The sugar cane that has fallen from the separation device 7 is received by the hopper 19, temporarily accumulated there, and then gradually guided through the accepting opening to the front lower part of the rear conveying device 6.

[0037] Although only diagrammatically shown in Figure 5, the hopper 19 is equipped with a hopper camera (hereinafter simply referred to as camera) 9A that photographs the inside of the hopper 19. The camera 9A photographs from above the sugarcane (more precisely, short cut sugarcane stalks) accumulated in the hopper 19 and the accumulation of impurities mixed in with the sugarcane. Although not shown, the camera 9A is equipped with lighting equipment that illuminates the photographing area.

[0038] Figure 6 is a functional block diagram showing the control system of the sugarcane harvester, in particular the functional blocks of the control system used to evaluate the presence of impurities in the hopper 19. The control unit CU is the core element of the control system and is substantially constructed by a computer system.

[0039] The control unit CU receives, via the input signal processing unit 51, monitoring results from the separation monitoring unit 9 (described later), operation signals from the manual operation tool group 60, detection signals from the detector group 84 such as a topper height detector 84A that detects the height of the topper 8, and the like. The manual operation tool group 60 includes a topper operation tool for manually raising and lowering the topper 8 and turning the cutter 82 on and off, a travel control operation tool for performing speed change operation and steering operation, and a discharge operation tool for operating the rear conveying device 6. Most of the manual operation tools 60 are arranged in the driver's section 10 so that they can be operated by the driver.

[0040] The control unit CU outputs, via the output signal processing unit 52, control signals for operating the hydraulic motor 72M of the blower 72, control signals for operating the lifting cylinder 83 and cutter 82 of the topper 8, and alarm signals for notifying the driver and surrounding people and animals of certain information via the alarm device 85. Naturally, control signals for other devices (operating devices such as the reaping unit 3 and the rear conveying device 6) are also output. The alarm device 85 includes a monitor 85A and a speaker 85B disposed in the driving unit 10. The monitor 85A, which functions as a camera monitor, displays not only images captured by the camera 9A capturing the interior of the hopper 19 but also images captured by various monitoring cameras (not shown). Furthermore, the monitor 85A can also display data representing the vehicle status, such as vehicle speed and mileage. The speaker 85B issues various warnings and guidance messages by voice. The alarm device 85 also includes a buzzer, a lamp, and the like.

[0041] The control unit CU is equipped with functional units such as a travel control unit 53, an operation control unit 54, a notification control unit 55, and a manual / automatic selection unit 56. The travel control unit 53 includes a vehicle speed control unit 53A and a steering control unit 53B. The travel control unit 53 controls the transmission 23 and the steering mechanism based on operation signals as operation commands from the manual operation device group 60, and achieves the vehicle speed and steering desired by the driver. If an obstacle detection device is installed, the travel control unit 53 slows down or stops the vehicle 1 based on the detection of an obstacle.

[0042] The work control unit 54 controls the reaping unit 3, the conveying device 4, the separating device 7, the post-conveying device 6, etc. based on operation signals from the group of manual operation tools 60. The work control unit 54 includes a topper control unit 54A that controls the height of the topper 8 and a blower control unit 54B that controls the rotation speed of the blower 72, which are particularly relevant to the present invention.

[0043] The notification control unit 55 generates (or transfers) a video signal for displaying the above-mentioned captured image on the monitor 85A, and also generates a notification signal for notifying the traveling state, working state, topper height, etc. detected by the functional units of the control unit CU through the notification device 85. If an obstacle detection device is installed, the notification control unit 55 generates obstacle detection information and provides it to the notification device 85.

[0044] This sugarcane harvester is capable of manual and automatic driving. Whether to use manual or automatic driving can be determined based on the harvesting work situation and the intentions of the driver (harvesting manager). For manual driving, a group of manual operation tools 60 is used. For automatic driving, a driving control unit 53 and a work control unit 54 output control signals for automatic driving based on the vehicle's position from a positioning unit (not shown) and a preset target route. A manual / automatic selection unit 56 selects manual or automatic driving through manual operation, but if the conditions for automatic driving are no longer met during automatic driving, the machine 1 is forcibly stopped and forced to switch to manual driving.

[0045] The separation monitoring unit 9 includes a camera 9A and an estimation section 90. The estimation section 90 analyzes the image captured by the camera 9A and estimates the content rate of the impurities.

[0046] As shown in Fig. 7, the estimation unit 90 includes a preprocessing unit 91 and an accumulation state estimation model 92. The preprocessing unit 91 performs color adjustment, resolution change, etc. on the image captured by the camera 9A, and also performs preprocessing to convert the image into vector data suitable for input data to the accumulation state estimation model 92. Fig. 8 shows an example of the captured image.

[0047] The accumulation state estimation model 92 is a machine learning model, preferably a machine learning model using a deep learning technique. The accumulation state estimation model 92 receives input data generated by a pre-processing unit 91 based on color photographed images, and outputs an impurity content rate (hereinafter referred to as impurity content rate or simply content rate) indicating the ratio between shortly cut sugarcane (final harvest product) and impurities that could not be separated and discharged by the separator 7.

[0048] The accumulation state estimation model 92 is constructed by supervised learning using a large number of learning samples (learning images and their labeled images) as learning data. The learning samples are composed of actual captured images and impurity content rates artificially estimated from the learning images by experts from the captured images, or impurity content rates calculated through artificial classification work from the actual accumulated materials in the hopper 19.

[0049] Instead of outputting the impurity content rate, the accumulation state estimation model 92 may output parameters of a normal distribution or Gaussian distribution that indicates an appropriate distribution of culms, and then calculate the impurity content rate or a value similar thereto from the parameters in post-processing. Alternatively, feature data corresponding to the impurity content rate may be output, and then the impurity content rate or a value similar thereto may be calculated from the feature data in post-processing.

[0050] The impurity content rate output from the accumulation state estimation model 92 is sent to the work control unit 54 and the travel control unit 53 and is used to adjust the equipment operation as follows in order to improve the impurity content rate. (1) When the impurity content rate is used in the blower control unit 54B, the blower control unit 54B controls the rotation speed of the blower 72 in accordance with the impurity content rate. For example, the blower control unit 54B adjusts the rotation speed of the blower 72 so that the rotation speed increases as the impurity content rate increases. (2) When the impurity content rate is used in vehicle speed control unit 53A, vehicle speed control unit 53A adjusts the vehicle speed in accordance with the impurity content rate. For example, vehicle speed control unit 53A adjusts the vehicle speed so as to decrease the vehicle speed as the impurity content rate increases. (3) When the impurity content rate is used in the topper control unit 54A, the topper control unit 54A controls the topper position according to the impurity content rate. For example, the topper control unit 54A lowers the topper height as the impurity content rate increases.

[0051] Adjustment control based on the impurity content rate can also be performed manually. In this case, the impurity content rate output from the estimation unit 90 is provided to the notification control unit 55, which generates notification information such as a voice message or illustrations about the impurity content rate (content rate information) and notifies the driver via the notification device 85. Based on the received notification information, the driver adjusts the topper height, blower rotation speed, vehicle speed, etc. using the manual operation tools 60. In particular, the monitor 85A of the notification device 85 can display current state values ​​(which may be displayed graphically) that affect the impurity content rate, such as the topper height, blower rotation speed, and vehicle speed, and recommended values ​​calculated by the blower control unit 54B, vehicle speed control unit 53A, and topper control unit 54A based on the estimated impurity content rate, so that they can be compared.

[0052] The sugarcane stalks and impurities stored in the hopper 19 can be easily or difficult to distinguish from each other depending on the observation direction. For this reason, the separation monitoring unit 9 may be equipped with multiple cameras 9A with different shooting fields, or the cameras 9A may be movable so as to be able to capture images with multiple different shooting fields. The separation monitoring unit 9 may be configured to select an image that is optimal for estimating the impurity content rate from multiple images captured under different shooting conditions, such as shooting directions, based on image characteristics such as the color distribution of the captured image, and provide the image to the estimation unit 90. Furthermore, the lighting for photography may be changeable depending on the accumulation state of the sugarcane and impurities in the hopper 19 and the environmental conditions of the accumulation area.

[0053] [Another embodiment] (1) In the above-described embodiment, the estimation unit 90 uses only the photographed image as input data and outputs the impurity content rate. However, the estimation unit 90 may be configured to use not only the photographed image but also work setting values ​​such as topper height, blower rotation speed, and vehicle speed as input data and output adjustment values ​​for topper height, blower rotation speed, and vehicle speed.

[0054] (2) Sugarcane harvesters can be manually operated, automatically operated, or remotely controlled.

[0055] (3) The functional block diagram shown in Figure 6 is a schematic configuration for the purpose of explanation. Each functional block shown may be integrated with other functional blocks, or one functional block may be further divided.

[0056] (4) In the above-described embodiment, the separation monitoring unit 9 performs preprocessing on the captured image from the camera 9A, such as adjusting the color and changing the resolution, and converting the captured image into vector data suitable for input to the accumulation state estimation model 92. In this preprocessing, in order for the accumulation state estimation model 92 to output more accurate estimation results, it is also proposed to select captured images that can clearly distinguish between proper sugarcane and impurities through color conversion, color histogram analysis, etc., and input them to the estimation unit 90. In other words, the accuracy of the estimation results is improved by selecting the most suitable captured image for the accumulation state estimation model 92 from the captured images sent every second. In this selection of captured images, it is preferable to use not only images captured by the same camera 9A, but also images captured from different shooting directions.

[0057] The configurations disclosed in the above embodiments (including other embodiments, the same applies below) can be applied in combination with configurations disclosed in other embodiments, as long as no contradiction arises. Furthermore, the embodiments disclosed in this specification are examples, and the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to these, and can be modified as appropriate within the scope that does not deviate from the purpose of the present invention. [Industrial Applicability]

[0058] The present invention can be applied to a sugarcane harvester equipped with a separation device that separates impurities contained in sugarcane. [Explanation of symbols]

[0059] 1: Aircraft 3: Reaping part 4:Transportation device 6: Post-transport device 7: Separation device 8: Toppa 9: Separate monitoring unit 9A: Camera 10: Driving section 19: Hopper 53: Driving control unit 53A: Vehicle speed control unit 53B: Steering control section 54: Work control section 54A: Topper control unit 54B: Blower control section 55: Notification control section 56: Automatic selection section 60:Artificial operating tools group 72: Blower 84: Detector group 84A: Topper height detector 85: Notification device 90: Guessing part 91: Preprocessing section 92: Accumulation state estimation model CU: Control unit

Claims

1. a reaping unit provided at the front of the machine body for reaping planted sugarcane; A conveying device that conveys the sugarcane harvested by the harvesting unit toward the rear of the machine body; a separation device that separates impurities such as fine stalks and leaves contained in the sugarcane stalks fed from the conveying device by the ventilation action of a blower and discharges them to the outside; a hopper that receives the sugar cane from the separation device and temporarily stores it; a camera for photographing the inside of the hopper; an estimation unit that analyzes the image captured by the camera and estimates the content rate of the impurities; Sugarcane harvester equipped with a

2. The sugarcane harvester according to claim 1, further comprising a blower control unit that controls the number of revolutions of the blower in accordance with the content estimated by the estimation unit.

3. The sugarcane harvester according to claim 2, wherein the blower control unit increases the rotation speed of the blower as the content rate increases.

4. The sugarcane harvester according to claim 1, further comprising a travel control unit that adjusts a vehicle speed in accordance with the content rate estimated by the estimation unit.

5. The sugarcane harvester according to claim 4 , wherein the travel control unit reduces the vehicle speed as the content rate increases.

6. A topper control unit is provided to control the position of a topper arranged above the harvesting unit so as to cut upper leaves of the sugarcane, The sugarcane harvester according to claim 1, wherein a topper position of the topper is controlled in accordance with the content estimated by the estimation unit.

7. The sugarcane harvester according to claim 6, wherein the topper control unit lowers the topper as the content rate increases.

8. The sugarcane harvester according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein content rate information based on the content rate estimated by the estimation unit is notified by an announcing device.

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