# US 10,481,628 B2 · Surfacing of subsystem power consumption on an agricultural machine

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- Number: US 10,481,628 B2
- Document ID: US10481628B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/862,490
- Filed: 2015-09-23
- Published: 2017-03-23
- Granted: 2019-11-19
- Earliest claimed: 2015-09-23
- Assignees: Deere & Company
- Applicants: Deere & Company
- Inventors: William D. French, Jr.
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10481628B2

## CPC

- G05F 1/66: Regulating electric power
- A01D 41/127: Control or measuring arrangements specially adapted for combines
- G05B 15/02: electric
- A01B 79/005: {Precision agriculture}
- G05F: SYSTEMS FOR REGULATING ELECTRIC OR MAGNETIC VARIABLES
- A01D: HARVESTING; MOWING
- G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G)
- A01B: SOIL WORKING IN AGRICULTURE OR FORESTRY; PARTS, DETAILS, OR ACCESSORIES OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINES OR IMPLEMENTS, IN GENERAL (making or covering furrows or holes for sowing, planting or manuring A01C5/00; mowers convertible to soil working apparatus or capable of soil working A01D42/04; mowers combined with soil working implements A01D43/12; soil working for engineering purposes E01, E02, E21)

## Abstract

Power consumption is sensed for individual subsystems of an agricultural machine. Visual indicia are generated, that are indicative of the sensed power consumption, for each individual subsystem. A user interface mechanism is controlled to display the visual indicia, indicating power consumption of the individual subsystems on the harvesting machine.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A combine, comprising:
a threshing system;
a separating system;
a plurality of power detectors, a first power detector detecting a variable indicative of power consumed by the threshing subsystem, and a second power detector detecting a variable indicative of power consumed by the separating subsystem, each of the first and second power detectors generating a corresponding power consumption signal indicative of the detected variable;
a power consumption surfacing system that receives the power consumption signals from the first and second power detectors and generates a visualization indicative of the power consumed by each of the threshing and separating subsystems to an operator of the combine while the combine is in use;
wherein the variable indicative of power consumed by the threshing system corresponds to a component of the threshing system and the variable indicative of power consumed by the separating system corresponds to a component of the separating system.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The combine of claim 1 wherein the power consumption surfacing system comprises:
a consumption analysis component that identifies power consumption of the threshing subsystem and the separating subsystem based on the power consumption signals.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The combine of claim 2 wherein the power consumption surfacing system comprises:
a visualization generator configured to generate the visualization to show a first metric value corresponding to the threshing subsystem and a second metric value corresponding to the separating subsystem, the first and second metric indicative of the power being consumed by the corresponding subsystem.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The combine of claim 3 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with a machine display portion displaying a depiction of the combine and a power consumption display portion that displays the power being consumed by the threshing subsystem and the separating mechanism.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The combine of claim 4 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with the machine display portion showing each of the threshing and separating subsystems on the depiction of the combine.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The combine of claim 5 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with visual indicia correlating each of the threshing and separating subsystems on the depiction of the combine to the metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by each of the threshing and separating subsystems.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The combine of claim 6 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with the visual indicia color coding each of the threshing and separating subsystems on the depiction of the combine with the metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by each of the threshing and separating subsystems.

### Claim 8 (depends on 5)

The combine of claim 5 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with the power consumption display portion displaying the power being consumed by each of the threshing and separating subsystems on a chart.

### Claim 9 (depends on 5)

The combine of claim 5 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with the power consumption display portion displaying the power being consumed by each of the threshing and separating subsystems as alphanumeric values.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The combine of claim 1 wherein at least a given one of the threshing and separating subsystems has a plurality of power consuming components and wherein the power consumption surfacing system generates the visualization to show power being consumed by the individual power consuming components of the given subsystem.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The combine of claim 1 wherein the subsystems further comprise one or more of a cleaning subsystem, a residue processing subsystem, a propulsion subsystem, a front end equipment subsystem, and a material handling subsystem.

### Claim 12

A method of controlling a combine, the method comprising:
detecting a variable indicative of power consumed on a threshing subsystem, of the combine;
detecting a variable indicative of power consumed on a propulsion system of the combine;
generating a corresponding power consumption signal indicative of the detected variable; and
surfacing a visualization indicative of the power consumed by each of the threshing and propulsion subsystems, based on the corresponding power consumption signals to an operator of the combine while the combine is in use.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12 wherein surfacing comprises:
identifying power being consumed by of each of the threshing and propulsion subsystems based on the power consumption signals; and
generating the visualization to show a metric value corresponding to each subsystem, indicative of the power being consumed by the corresponding subsystem.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13 wherein generating the visualization comprises:
generating the visualization with a machine display portion displaying a depiction of the combine and a power consumption display portion that displays the power being consumed by each subsystem.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14 wherein generating the visualization comprises:
generating the visualization with the machine display portion showing each of the threshing and propulsion subsystems on the depiction of the combine and with visual indicia correlating the subsystems on the depiction of the combine to the metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by the subsystems.

### Claim 16 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12 wherein at least a given one of the threshing and propulsion subsystems has a plurality of power consuming components and wherein surfacing the visualization comprises:
surfacing the visualization to show power being consumed by the individual power consuming components of the at least one given subsystem.

### Claim 17 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12 wherein surfacing the visualization comprises:
surfacing the visualization to show power being consumed by at least one of a separating subsystem, a cleaning subsystem, a residue processing subsystem, a front end equipment subsystem, and a material handling subsystem.

### Claim 18 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15 wherein generating the visualization comprises:
generating the visualization with the visual indicia color coding the subsystems on the depiction of the combine with the metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by the subsystems.

### Claim 19

A combine, comprising:
a threshing subsystem;
a front end equipment subsystem;
a first power detector configured to detect power consumed on the threshing subsystem, and a second power detector configured to detect power consumed on the front end equipment subsystem, each of the first and second power detectors generating a corresponding power consumption signal indicative of the power consumed;
a consumption analysis component that identifies power consumption of each of the threshing and front end equipment subsystems based on the power consumption signals;
a power consumption surfacing system that receives the identified power consumption and generates a visualization indicative of the power consumed by each of the threshing and front end equipment subsystems to an operator of the combine while the combine is in use;
wherein the visualization comprises indicia of the power consumed by the threshing subsystem relative to the power consumed by the front end equipment subsystem.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The combine of claim 19 wherein the power consumption surfacing system comprises:
a visualization generator configured to generate the visualization with a machine display portion displaying a depiction of the combine and a power consumption display portion that displays the power being consumed by each of the threshing subsystem and the front end equipment subsystem, the visualization including visual indicia correlating the subsystems on the depiction of the combine to metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by the subsystems.

### Claim 21

An agricultural machine comprising:
a controllable subsystem;
a first subsystem component;
a second subsystem component;
a first power detector configured to detect a first variable of the first subsystem component and generate a first power consumption signal indicative of power consumed by the first subsystem component based on the first variable;
a second power detector configured to detect a second variable of the second subsystem component and generate a second power consumption signal indicative of power consumed by the second subsystem based on the second variable;
a conditioning component configured to receive the first and second power consumption signals and generate a conditioned power consumption signal;
a power consumption surfacing system configured to receive the conditioned power consumption signal and aggregate the signal to determine a power consumption metric for the controllable subsystem; and
a visualization generator component configured to generate a visualization indicative of the power consumed by the controllable subsystem based on the power consumption metric.