Sensor calibration using field information
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsNoel W. Anderson, Aaron M. Senneff, Jill M. Stanford, Henry H. Roark, III
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A topographical indication for a field is detected by an aerial sensor and, based on the topographical indication, an area of consistent elevation is calculated. An estimated yield indication for a field is also detected, and an area of consistent estimated yield is calculated. With a controller, a calibration candidate zone is generated, wherein the calibration candidate zone comprises an area of the field with a consistent topography and a consistent estimated yield along a width and a length of the area.
Claims20
An agricultural sensor calibration zone computing system, comprising:
- calibration zone identifier logic that receives estimated yield data indicative of estimated yield corresponding to a plurality of different areas of a field and identifies a calibration zone, in which yield sensor calibration processing is performed, in the field based on the estimated yield data;
- and
- a calibration system, receiving yield data generated by a yield sensor and being indicative of a sensed yield and geographic location information indicative of a geographic location where the sensed yield was sensed, the calibration system performing the yield sensor calibration processing based on the geographic location information indicating that the geographic location where the sensed yield was sensed corresponds to the identified calibration zone.
An agricultural machine, comprising:
- a set of crop processing components that engage and process a crop in a field;
- a yield sensor that senses a variable indicative of yield and generates a yield sensor signal indicative of the sensed variable;
- calibration zone identifier logic that receives estimated yield data indicative of estimated yield corresponding to a plurality of different areas of the field and identifies a calibration zone in the field based on the estimated yield data, the calibration zone being an area in the field for which the yield sensor generates the corresponding yield sensor signal on which calibration processing can be performed to identify whether the yield sensor is sufficiently calibrated;
- and
- a calibration system that performs calibration processing by receiving the yield sensor signal in the calibration zone, and by determining whether a yield sensor calibration is to be performed based on variation in the yield sensor signal.
A method of identifying a calibration zone for calibrating a yield sensor of a harvester, comprising:
- receiving a topographical indication for a field;
- calculating an area of consistent elevation in the field based at least in part on the topographical indication;
- receiving an estimated yield indication for the field;
- calculating an area of consistent estimated yield in the field based at least in part on the estimated yield indication;
- correlating the area of consistent elevation with the area of consistent yield to identify a calibration zone comprising an area of the field with a consistent topography and a consistent estimated yield along a width and a length of the area;
- and
- calibrating the yield sensor based on a yield signal generated by the yield sensor in the calibration zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.