Riding mower with blade motor control
AssigneeKubota Corporation
InventorsKazuo Koike, Hirokazu Ito
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides a riding work vehicle that includes a vehicle body having a driver seat; a driving wheel unit supporting the vehicle body; a working electric motor that drives a work unit having a work device; an electric motor controller controlling an operation of the working electric motor in a steady mode or a power saving mode in which consumed power is smaller than the steady mode; and a work load evaluator that evaluates load of the working electric motor. In the riding work vehicle, the electric motor controller operates the working electric motor in the power saving mode in a case where the load of the working electric motor evaluated by the work load evaluator is low load lower than a threshold value.
Claims14
A riding mower comprising:
- a vehicle body having a driver seat;
- a driving wheel unit supporting the vehicle body;
- a mower unit comprising:
- at least one blade structured and arranged to cut grass;
- at least one blade motor structured and arranged to cause rotation of the at least one blade;
- and
- at least one work condition detection sensor structured and arranged to detect a load of the at least one blade motor;
- at least one of:
- at least one running condition detection sensor structured and arranged to detect or sense a running condition of the driving wheel unit;
- or
- at least one steering condition detection sensor structured and arranged to detect or sense a steering condition;
- and
- a sensor information processor structured and arranged to receive signals from:
- the at least one work condition detection sensor;
- and
- the at least one running condition detection sensor and/or the at least one steering condition detection sensor;
- a mower controller that controls an operation of the at least one blade motor in one of a steady mode and a power saving mode in which consumed power is smaller than the steady mode;
- and
- a work load evaluator that evaluates the load of the at least one blade motor,
- wherein the mower controller operates the at least one blade motor in the power saving mode when the load of the at least one blade motor is determined to be below a threshold value and using information from the work load evaluator, and
- wherein the at least one work condition detection sensor also senses an amount of rotation of the at least one blade motor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.