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US 10,281,905 B2Granted
Control system for agricultural equipment
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorWilliam D. French, Jr.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In an agricultural machine, sensor signal variability is identified, over a period of time. A control system deadband is identified, based upon the sensor signal variability. A control system uses the control system deadband to control the agricultural machine.
Claims12
An agricultural combine, comprising:
- a header configured to engage crop during movement of the agricultural combine throughout an agricultural field;
- a machine orientation sensor configured to sense an orientation of the header and generate a sensor signal indicative of the sensed orientation;
- a deadband identification system that repeatedly and automatically identifies a deadband corresponding to the sensor signal, intermittently, during operation, the deadband identification system comprising:
- a signal characteristic capture component that captures a set of discrete sensor signal values of the given sensor signal over a given time period;
- a calculation component configured to calculate a measure of signal variability based on the set of discrete sensor signal values;
- a deadband identifier that identifies the deadband corresponding to the given sensor signal based on the measure of signal variability, the deadband identifier comprising:
- a transform component that transforms the set of discrete sensor signal values into a frequency domain;
- a frequency component identifier that identifies frequency components to be filtered;
- and
- a filter that filters out the identified frequency components from the given sensor signal to obtain a filtered sensor signal;
- and
- a control system that generates action signals for controlling the orientation of the header based on the filtered sensor signal.
9 more elements
A method of controlling an agricultural machine, comprising:
- sensing a position of a component on the agriculture machine;
- generating a sensor signal indicative of the sensed position of the component;
- capturing a set of discrete sensor signal values of the sensor signal over a given time period;
- automatically identifying a measure of signal variability, indicative of a level of variation in the set of discrete sensor signal values;
- repeatedly identifying a deadband corresponding to the sensor signal based on the corresponding measure of signal variability, intermittently, during operation of the agricultural machine, wherein identifying the deadband comprises:
- transforming the sensor signal into a frequency domain;
- identifying frequency components to be filtered;
- and
- filtering out the identified frequency components from the sensor signal to obtain a filtered sensor signal;
- and
- generating action signals to modify the position of the component based on the filtered sensor signal.
8 more elements
An agriculture machine, comprising:
- a controllable subsystem configured to interact with crop during movement of the agricultural machine throughout an agricultural field;
- a controllable subsystem sensor configured to sense a characteristic of the controllable subsystem and generate a sensor signal indicative of the sensed characteristic;
- a variability identifying component configured to automatically identify a measure of signal variability corresponding to the sensor signal;
- a deadband identifying system that identifies a deadband corresponding to the sensor signal based on the corresponding measure of signal variability, intermittently, during the operation of the agricultural machine, the deadband identifying system comprising:
- a signal characteristic capturing component configured to capture a set of discrete sensor signal values corresponding to the given sensor signal over a given period of time;
- a deadband identifier that identifies the given deadband corresponding to the set of discrete sensor signal values based on the measure of signal variability, the deadband identifier comprising:
- a transform component that transforms the set of discrete sensor signal values into a frequency domain;
- a frequency component identifier that identifies frequency components to be filtered;
- and
- a filter that filters out the identified frequency components from the given sensor signal to obtain a filtered sensor signal;
- and
- a control system that controls the characteristic based on the filtered sensor signal.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.