Estimating yield of agricultural crops

A system for estimating volumes of agricultural crops gathered in windrows, comprising:

• a harvesting machine configured to gather an agricultural crop and arrange the agricultural crop on the ground in a windrow;
• a geographic position sensor coupled to the harvesting machine and configured to provide positions of the harvesting machine as it places the agricultural crop on the ground in the windrow;
• a sensor system disposed at a bottom of the harvesting machine and arranged so that an emitter of the sensor system is downward facing and the windrow on the ground is within a field of view of the sensor system, and the sensor system is also arranged to receive signals indicative of profiles of segments of the windrow on the ground, wherein each segment of the windrow extends across a width of the windrow and along a length of the windrow;
• and
• a controller coupled to the geographic position sensor and to the sensor system, the controller configured to:
• receive the positions of the harvesting machine from the geographic position sensor;
• determine a speed of the harvesting machine using the geographic position sensor;
• receive signals from the sensor system;
• estimate cross-sectional areas of the windrow using the signals, wherein each cross-sectional area is associated with one of the segments of the windrow and represents a cross-section across the width of the windrow;
• and
• estimate volumes of the agricultural crop using the speed of the harvesting machine and the estimated cross-sectional areas of the windrow.

A method for estimating volumes of agricultural crops gathered in windrows, the method comprising:

• receiving positions from a geographic position sensor coupled to a harvesting machine, the positions received as the harvesting machine gathers an agricultural crop and places the agricultural crop on the ground in a windrow;
• determining a speed of the harvesting machine using the geographic position sensor;
• receiving signals from a sensor system disposed at a bottom of the harvesting machine and arranged so that an emitter of the sensor system is downward facing and the windrow on the ground is within a field of view of the sensor system, wherein the signals are indicative of profiles of segments of the windrow on the ground, and wherein each segment of the windrow extends across a width of the windrow and along a length of the windrow;
• estimating cross-sectional areas of the windrow using the signals, wherein each cross-sectional area is associated with one of the segments of the windrow and represents a cross-section across the width of the windrow;
• and
• estimating volumes of the agricultural crop using the speed of the harvesting machine and the estimated cross-sectional areas of the windrow.