Granted Patent B2

US 12,419,215 · App. 18/060,549 · Granted Sep 23, 2025

Inventors: Shinsuke Sato (Toyota, JP); Takehito Sakakibara (Nisshin, JP)

Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA

A01D34/008

Abstract

Claims (25)

1. A mower comprising:

a mower main body;

crawlers each provided on both right and left sides at a front end portion of the mower main body and on both right and left sides at a rear end portion of the mower main body, wherein the crawlers each include a drive wheel, a first idler wheel and a second idler wheel;

a motor mounted on the mower main body;

a rotation shaft including a lower end and an upper end, the upper end being connected to the motor;

a rotating member attached to the lower end of the rotation shaft, the rotating member including a periphery, the rotating member has a disk shape and a plurality of mowing blades are provided at equal intervals along a circumferential direction of the rotating member;

the plurality of mowing blades attached to the periphery of the rotating member; and

one or more processors configured to:

create a virtual route by connecting multiple data points of three-dimensional point cloud data, wherein the three-dimensional point cloud data is composed of three-dimensional data of multiple positioning points in a target area,

obtain an inclination angle and a route length of the virtual route,

when the inclination angle is greater than a first threshold value and the route length is greater than a second threshold value, identify subsidence on a ground surface where the mower main body is not able to travel, wherein the second threshold value is half a body length of the mower main body, wherein the route length is a length of a line connecting two data points of the three-dimensional point cloud data,

the three-dimensional point cloud data are composed of three-dimensional data of multiple positioning points in the target area and are obtained in a process of creating orthophoto image data created by a numerical elevation model of the target area and captured by a drone by aerial photogrammetry,

the one or more processors are further configured to identify, based on the set travel route, an area where the mower main body does not travel in the target area as a no mowing area in association with the orthophoto image data, and

wherein the one or more processors are further configured to update the no mowing area based on travel history of the mower main body; and

set a travel route of the mower main body by avoiding the identified subsidence.

2. The mower according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to

create a plurality of virtual routes,

obtain the inclination angle and the route length for each of the plurality of virtual routes,

determine whether the inclination angle of each of the plurality of virtual routes is greater than the first threshold value,

determine whether the route length of each of the plurality of virtual routes is greater than the second threshold value,

for a first virtual route out of the plurality of virtual routes, when the inclination angle is greater than the first threshold value and the route length is greater than the second threshold value, identify the subsidence on the ground surface where the mower main body is not able to travel, and

set the travel route of the mower main body by excluding the first virtual route.

3. The mower according to claim 1 , wherein

the virtual route is inclined with respect to a reference horizontal line, and

the route length is a length of the inclined virtual route from one data point to another data point of the three-dimensional point cloud data.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (19)