Method and system for operating irrigation systems motors
AssigneeLindsay Corporation
InventorJochen Pfrenger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An irrigation system includes a central pivot and a series of mobile towers connected to the central pivot and to one another by support structure. Each mobile tower has wheels and a motor for driving at least one of the wheels. A control system operates the motors to maintain alignment of the mobile towers and the central pivot while preventing power usage of the system from exceeding a maximum power threshold. The control system determines in which sequence to operate the motors to maintain alignment of the mobile towers while operating no more than a selected number of the motors simultaneously.
Claims20
An irrigation system comprising:
- a support structure;
- a series of mobile towers connected to one another by support structure, each mobile tower having wheels and a motor for driving at least one of the wheels;
- and
- a control system configured to determine a maximum number of motors that can operate simultaneously without exceeding a configurable maximum power threshold and selectively direct a number of the motors to operate so that the mobile towers maintain alignment and so that the number of motors selectively activated to propel the mobile towers does not exceed the maximum number of motors.
An irrigation system comprising:
- a support structure;
- a plurality of mobile towers connected to one another by the support structure, each mobile tower having wheels and a motor for driving at least one of the wheels;
- and
- a control system configured to selectively direct one or more of the motors to operate so that the mobile towers maintain alignment and so that a number of operating motors does not exceed a maximum number, the control system including a computing device configured to:
- (a) monitor the position of each mobile tower;
- (b) determine a degree of mis-alignment of each mobile tower;
- (c) prioritize the mobile towers in order of decreasing degree of mis-alignment of each mobile tower;
- (d) determine whether the number of operating motors exceeds the maximum number;
- (e) identify a least mis-aligned mobile tower and turn off a running motor of the least mis-aligned mobile tower if the maximum number is exceeded;
- and
- (f) identify a most mis-aligned mobile tower and turn on a motor of the most-mis-aligned mobile tower if the maximum number is not exceeded.
A method of operating an irrigation system having a plurality of mobile towers each with wheels and a drive motor for driving at least one of the wheels, the method comprising:
- (a) determining a current location or orientation of each of the mobile towers;
- (b) determining which of the motors to operate to maintain alignment of the irrigation system based on the current location or orientation of the mobile towers;
- (c) determining a maximum number of motors that can be operated simultaneously without exceeding a configurable maximum power threshold;
- (d) operating a number of the motors that does not exceed the maximum number of motors that can be operated in response to step (b).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.