Agricultural harvester biomass estimating system
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsNathan R. Vandike, Brian J. Gilmore
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A biomass estimating system for an agricultural harvester includes a sensor arrangement disposed to sense standing crop adjacent to the agricultural harvester and disposed to sense a portion of ground adjacent to the agricultural harvester that has been previously harvested. An ECU receives signals indicating the standing crop and signals indicating the portion of the ground and calculates an estimated biomass of the standing crop based at least upon the signals indicating the standing crop and the signals indicating the portion of ground.
Claims17
A biomass estimating system for an agricultural harvesting vehicle operable in an agricultural field to harvest crops, the biomass estimating system comprising:
- a sensor arrangement directed laterally away from a side of the agricultural harvesting vehicle in a direction generally transverse to a direction of travel, wherein a stand of crop adjacent to the agricultural harvesting vehicle is within a field of view of at least one sensor, and wherein a portion of the ground previously harvested crop is also within the field of view;
- and
- an ECU coupled to the sensor arrangement, wherein the ECU is configured to receive signals indicating the stand of crop and the portion of the ground previously harvested,
- wherein the ECU is configured to calculate an estimated biomass for the portion of ground adjacent to the agricultural harvesting vehicle and having the stand of crop based upon the signals received from the stand of crop, and signals received from the portion of ground previously harvested, wherein for calculating the estimated biomass the ECU is configured to calculate a vertical extent of the stand of crop based on i) a vertical position of a top of the stand of crop and ii) a vertical position of the portion of the ground previously harvested, both of which are in the field of view of the at least one sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.