Agricultural sprayer active boom center frame positioning system

A center frame positioning system for an agricultural sprayer vehicle, the system comprising:

• a first actuator disposed on a first side of a suspended center frame of an agricultural sprayer vehicle, and a second actuator disposed on a second side of the suspended center frame, the first actuator configured to operably apply a first force to the suspended center frame to rotate the suspended center frame in a first direction, and the second actuator configured to operably apply a second force to the suspended center frame to rotate the suspended center frame in a second direction, wherein one or more sprayer boom arms are attached to the suspended center frame and operably extended over the ground;
• a center frame position sensor operably detecting the real time rotational position of the suspended center frame relative to the vehicle;
• one or more vehicle sensors, the one or more vehicle sensor providing vehicle sensor data to the central controller indicative of one or more of:
• real-time vehicle heading, real-time vehicle turn rate, real-time vehicle speed, and real-time vehicle chassis roll;
• and
• a central controller comprising a computer processor and computer data storage, the central controller operably processing data indicative of the detected real time rotational position of the center frame and the vehicle data using programmable logic stored in the computer data storage to generate an actuator adjustment command for the first actuator and the second actuator, the actuator adjustment command resulting in an adjustment of the first force applied by the first actuator and the second force applied by the second actuator;
• wherein the adjustment of the first force applied by the first actuator and the adjustment of the second force applied by the second actuator results in an adjustment of a distance of the one or more sprayer boom arms from the ground.

A center frame positioning method for an agricultural sprayer, the method comprising:

• activating a center frame positioning system, the center frame positioning system comprising one or more controllable, variable pressure actuators that each operably exert a force on a suspended center frame of an agricultural sprayer vehicle, wherein a sprayer boom is attached to the suspended center frame;
• using a central controller, comprising a processor and memory, to collect and process position data indicative of a rotational position of the suspended center frame relative to the agricultural sprayer vehicle, wherein the position data is operably provided by one or more position sensors, wherein the position data comprises one or more of:
• a vehicle heading, a vehicle turn rate, a vehicle speed, a vehicle chassis roll;
• a boom roll of the sprayer boom, and a lift actuation provided by the one or more actuators;
• using programmable logic in the central controller to evaluate the position data to determine whether an adjustment to the position of the suspended center frame is needed;
• and
• controlling actuator force provided by at least one of the one or more actuators to adjust the position of the suspended center frame based on the evaluating the position data:
• wherein the central controller determines one or more of:
• a chassis roll moving average of the vehicle, and a boom roll moving average of the boom coupled with the center frame;
• and
• wherein the central controller further determines whether to provide an actuator adjustment command to adjust the position of the center frame based at least on the control device performing one or more of:
• comparing the vehicle speed to a predetermined vehicle speed threshold;
• comparing the vehicle chassis roll moving average to a predetermined vehicle chassis roll threshold;
• and
• comparing the boom roll moving average to a predetermined boom roll threshold.