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US 10,091,926 B2Granted
Downforce sensing and control with acceleration correction
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorRandall A. Maro
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An agricultural machine includes a force sensor that senses a force characteristic indicative of a force applied by a portion of the agricultural machine to ground. An acceleration sensor also senses accelerations on that portion of the machine, and an applied downforce is corrected for the forces contributed by the sensed acceleration. An action signal is generated to control the agricultural machine based upon the corrected downforce signal.
Claims18
A mobile machine system, comprising:
- a downforce actuator receiving a downforce control signal and applying a downforce to the mobile machine based on the downforce control signal;
- a force sensor sensing a force characteristic indicative of a force applied by a portion of the machine to ground that the portion of the machine is engaging and generating a force sensor signal indicative of the sensed force characteristic;
- an acceleration sensor sensing an acceleration of the portion of the machine and generating an acceleration sensor signal indicative of the sensed acceleration;
- and
- downforce correction logic receiving an indication of the sensed force characteristic and an indication of the sensed acceleration, identifying a relevant mass corresponding to the portion of the machine and, based on the sensed acceleration and the relevant mass, identifying a force acting on the portion of the machine and generating a corrected downforce value, to correct the downforce control signal, based on the sensed force characteristic and the identified force acting on the portion of the machine.
2 more elements
A method of controlling a mobile machine, comprising:
- sensing a force characteristic indicative of a force exerted by a portion of the mobile machine on ground engaged by the portion of the machine;
- generating a force sensor signal indicative of the sensed force characteristic;
- sensing an acceleration on the portion of the machine;
- generating an acceleration sensor signal indicative of the sensed acceleration;
- identifying a relevant mass corresponding to the portion of the machine;
- identify a force acting on the portion of the machine based on the sensed acceleration and the relevant mass corresponding to the portion of the machine;
- generating a corrected downforce value based on the sensed force characteristic and the identified force;
- and
- generating a control signal based on the corrected downforce value.
6 more elements
A row unit of a planting machine, comprising:
- a gauge wheel;
- a downforce actuator that exerts a downforce on the row unit;
- a force sensor sensing a force characteristic indicative of a force exerted by the gauge wheel on ground that is engaged by the gauge wheel, and generating a force sensor signal indicative of the sensed force characteristic;
- an acceleration sensor sensing an acceleration of the gauge wheel and generating an acceleration sensor signal indicative of the sensed acceleration;
- and
- downforce correction logic receiving an indication of the sensed force characteristic and an indication of the sensed acceleration, identifying a relevant mass corresponding to the gauge wheel and, based on the sensed acceleration and the relevant mass, identifying a force acting on the gauge wheel and identifying a reaction force based on the sensed force characteristic, the downforce correction logic generating a corrected downforce value, to correct the downforce control signal, by combining the reaction force with the identified force acting on the gauge wheel.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.