Electric walk behind greens mower

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10356977-B2
Application number	US-201715621328-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2017
Priority date	Jun 13, 2017
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

An electric walk behind greens mower includes an electric reel motor rotating a cutting reel; an electric traction motor rotating at least one traction drive roller; and an electronic control unit commanding the electric traction motor and the electric reel motor to rotate at reduced speeds during a turn if an electronic signal indicates a deviation from a normal walk speed. The electronic control unit also may determine if the actual speed of the electric traction motor is substantially less than the speed specified by a speed lever, and then command the electric reel motor and the electric traction motor to rotate at a lower speed than specified by the speed lever. The electric walk behind greens mower also may include a battery management system that activates a low voltage power supply if a key switch is turned from the off position to the run position, and that provides a start signal to an electronic control unit if the key switch is momentarily turned from the run position to the start position whereby the electronic control unit activates a high voltage power supply to the electric reel motor and the electric traction motor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electric walk behind greens mower, comprising:
an electric reel motor rotating a cutting reel;
an electric traction motor rotating at least one traction drive roller; and
an electronic control unit commanding the electric traction motor and the electric reel motor to rotate at reduced speeds during a turn around if the electronic control unit receives a first electronic signal compared to a threshold value indicating a deviation from a normal walk speed.

2. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 1 wherein the first electronic signal is a current spike from the electric traction motor.

3. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 1 wherein the first electronic signal is a spike from an accelerometer mounted on the electric walk behind greens mower.

4. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 1 wherein the first electronic signal is from a touch sensor on a handle of the electric walk behind greens mower.

5. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 1 wherein the electronic control unit includes a confidence level algorithm that ignores the first electronic signal indicating a deviation from the normal walk speed if there is a high confidence level that the electric walk behind greens mower is not at an edge of a green.

6. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 1 wherein the electronic control unit includes a timer for limiting how long the electric traction motor and the electric reel motor rotate at the reduced speeds.

7. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 1 wherein the electronic control unit includes an angle sensor providing a second electronic signal to the electronic control unit indicating if the turn around is complete.

8. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 1 wherein the electronic control unit provides commands to the electric traction motor and the electric reel motor to rotate at the reduced speeds via a CAN bus.

9. An electric walk behind greens mower, comprising:
an electric reel motor rotating a cutting reel;
an electric traction motor rotating at least one traction drive roller; and
an electronic control unit determining if an actual speed of the electric traction motor is substantially less than a speed specified by a speed lever when the speed lever changes position, and then commanding the electric reel motor and the electric traction motor to rotate at a lower speed than specified by the speed lever.

10. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 9 wherein the electronic control unit commands the electric reel motor and the electric traction motor to ramp up their rotational speeds in a plurality of steps toward the speed specified by the speed lever.

11. The electric walk behind greens mower of claim 9 wherein the electronic control unit commands the electric traction motor not to start rotating unless the speed lever is in a slow speed position below a low threshold.

Assignees

• Deere & Co

Inventors

• Kulkarni Punamchandra
• Edake Sandip
• Deenadayalan Saravanan
• Deshpande Chinmay
• Bagwan Rajesaheb
• Agrawal Bhupesh
• Kumar Naveen

Classifications

• B60W2300/156

  Ridable lawn mowers · CPC title

• A01D34/47

  with motor driven cutters or wheels · CPC title

• H02P23/20

  Controlling the acceleration or deceleration · CPC title

• B60K6/26

  characterised by the motors or the generators · CPC title

• H02P23/0077

  Characterised by the use of a particular software algorithm · CPC title