Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Runa Kaneko

Koji Kuriyagawa

Hideaki Shimamura

Ryota Hisada

Naoki Kameyama

Keiji Muro

The configuration includes: a motor for driving a driving wheel (rear wheel) provided to a body; a slip ratio calculating section for calculating a slip ratio while the lawn mower is traveling; a friction coefficient calculating section for calculating a friction coefficient of a ground on which the lawn mower is traveling; a determination section for determining whether the ground on which the lawn mower is traveling is a lawn based on a relationship between the slip ratio and the friction coefficient and a drive controlling section for controlling the motor based on a determination result from the determination section. This configuration allows suitable driving operability for both of a case where the ground on which a lawn mowers traveling is a lawn and a case where the ground is other than a lawn.

Lawn mower and control system determining whether ground is lawn

A collected article container device provided with a collected article container and capable of traveling autonomously is detachably connected to a work equipment main body that has a work unit such as a cutting blade device and is able to travel, the container device being configured to travel in a detached state to a collected article destination by itself.

Work equipment with autonomous collection container

To make it possible to correct a current position detected by an autonomous traveling work machine to the correct position with a simple configuration. A robot lawn mower includes a first position detecting unit for detecting a current position by using odometry and a second position detecting unit for detecting a current position by using an image capture. When position detection accuracy of both of the first and second position detecting units decreases to less than or equal to a predetermined value, the robot lawn mower is controlled to travel to either of zones Zand Zin which the position detection accuracy of the second position detecting unit is relatively high, and when the robot lawn mower moves to either of the zones Zand Z, a current position used for autonomous traveling is corrected to the current position detected by the second position detecting unit.

Autonomous traveling work machine

Work equipment configured to unload a collected article from the storage container and resistant to tipping over when unloading the collected article. The work equipment includes a vehicle body; a storage container provided on the vehicle body so as to be moveable between a horizontal position for storing a collected article and an inclined position for unloading the collected article; a drive unit provided between the vehicle body and the storage container and configured to change a container inclination angle defined as an angle of the storage container with respect to the vehicle body; an inclination angle sensor detecting a vehicle body inclination angle defined as an inclination angle of the vehicle body with respect to a horizontal plane; and a control unit configured to control a driving operation of the drive unit according to the vehicle body inclination angle.

Work equipment

A work equipment that can temporarily store an article that is collected while traveling, and includes a work equipment main body, a container device configured to store the article collected by the work equipment main body while being connected to the work equipment main body, and to travel to and back from a collected article destination by being detached from the work equipment main body, a travel drive unit configured to cause the container device to travel, a battery mounted to the container device to power the travel drive unit, a battery state of charge sensor configured to detect a remaining battery charge of the battery, and a control unit that determination whether the container device may be detached from the work equipment main body or not according to the remaining battery charge.

An article such as grass clippings collected by work equipment, such as a lawn mower, and stored in a container is allowed to be transported to an area for discarding such a collected article in an energy and work efficient way without imposing any undue burden on the operator. A collected article container device provided with a collected article container and capable of traveling autonomously is detachably connected to a work equipment main body that has a work unit such as a cutting blade device and is able to travel, the container device being configured to travel in a detached state to a collected article destination by itself. The work equipment main body is provided with a container lifting device that lifts the container device in a connected state to the work equipment main body so as to raise the front and rear wheels from the ground.

Work equipment with container lifting device

An article such as grass clippings collected by work equipment, such as a lawn mower, and stored in a container is allowed to be transported to an area for discarding such a collected article in an energy efficient and a work efficient way without imposing any undue burden on the operator. A collected article container device provided with a collected article container and capable of traveling autonomously is detachably connected to a work equipment main body that has a work unit such as a cutting blade device and is able to travel, the container device being configured to travel in a detached state to a collected article destination by itself. Further, the container device is provided with a lifting device that moves the rear wheels vertically relative to a device frame.

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Runa Kaneko