Autonomous Mower Reception Opening for Tall Grass Cutting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional autonomous travel work machines, such as robot lawn mowers, often fail to effectively mow tall or thick grass due to contact sensors activating obstacles, leading to unmowed areas as they avoid the grass rather than cutting it.
Innovation Solution
An autonomous travel work machine equipped with a contactless detection unit, including an imaging unit, that switches between travel and operation modes to allow for precise detection and mowing of tall grass by moving the grass into a reception opening for cutting, avoiding contact sensor activation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a contact sensor is used to detect obstacles, then the machine can avoid obstacles, but tall or thick grass is misidentified as an obstacle and avoided instead of being mowed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the contact sensor (mechanical detection system) with an imaging unit that uses optical fields to detect grass. The imaging unit captures images of the environment, and the control unit analyzes these images to distinguish between actual obstacles and tall grass based on visual characteristics, thereby eliminating the misidentification problem while maintaining obstacle avoidance capability.
2Productivity
If the machine travels with the operation unit exposed, then it can mow grass efficiently, but tall grass cannot be effectively received and processed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic configuration where the operation unit can change its position relative to the main body. The reception opening is provided on the side face of the main body, and the control unit controls the operation unit to move into this reception opening when tall grass is detected. This dynamic reconfiguration allows the machine to adapt its structure based on the grass height, enabling it to handle both short grass (with operation unit exposed) and tall grass (with operation unit retracted into reception opening).
Data Source
AI summary
The autonomous travel work machine executes the predetermined operation on the operation target while autonomously traveling, and includes: a driving unit driving a wheel to cause a main body to travel; a reception opening disposed on a side face of the main body regarding a traveling direction of the main body; an operation unit mounted on the main body and executing the predetermined operation on the operation target; and a control unit that controls the driving unit switchably between a first operation of causing the main body to travel against the operation target and executing the predetermined operation by the operation unit on the operation target and a second operation of moving the main body to a position where the operation target can be received in the reception opening and executing the predetermined operation by the operation unit on the operation target received in the reception opening.