Back to results
US 12,245,537 B2Granted
Agricultural machine section control
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsQiang R. Liu, Patrick C. Dougherty, Michael R. Moody, Ajit K. Thankappan Pillai
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A computer-implemented method of controlling a mobile agricultural machine includes receiving field map data representing a first agricultural operation performed on a field, receiving a location sensor signal indicative of a sensed geographic location of the mobile agricultural machine on the field, the mobile agricultural machine having a plurality of sections that are independently controllable to perform a second agricultural operation on the field that is different than the first agricultural operation, and generating a control signal to control the plurality of sections based on the field map data and the location sensor signal.
Claims20
A mobile agricultural machine comprising:
- a field operation subsystem configured to perform an agricultural operation on a field during a pass of the mobile agricultural machine over the field, the field operation subsystem comprising a first section and a second section that is independently controllable relative to the first section, wherein the first section and the second section are configured to simultaneously perform the agricultural operation on respective portions of the field that are spaced apart laterally relative to a direction of travel of the mobile agricultural machine over the field;
- and
- a control system configured to:
- receive prior field data that identifies one or more areas of the field and represents a prior agricultural operation performed on the one or more areas of the field prior to the pass of the mobile agricultural machine;
- receive an indication of a geographic location of the mobile agricultural machine on the field;
- based on the indication of the geographic location of the mobile agricultural machine,
- determine a first relative location of the first section that is relative to the one or more areas of the field identified by the prior field data, and
- determine a second relative location of the second section that is relative to the one or more areas of the field identified by the prior field data;
- control the first section to activate the agricultural operation during at least a portion of the pass based on the first relative location;
- and
- control the second section to deactivate the agricultural operation during the portion of the pass based on the second relative location.
8 more elements
A method performed by an agricultural system, the method comprising:
- controlling a field operation subsystem to perform an agricultural operation on a field during a machine pass over the field, the field operation subsystem comprising a first section and a second section that is independently controllable relative to the first section, wherein the first section and the second section are configured to simultaneously perform the agricultural operation on respective portions of the field that are spaced apart laterally relative to a direction of travel of the machine pass over the field;
- receiving prior field data that identifies one or more areas of the field and represents a prior agricultural operation performed on the one or more areas of the field prior to the machine pass;
- receiving an indication of a geographic location of the agricultural system on the field;
- based on the indication of the geographic location of the agricultural system,
- determining a first relative location of the first section that is relative to the one or more areas of the field identified by the prior field data, and
- determining a second relative location of the second section that is relative to the one or more areas of the field identified by the prior field data;
- activating the agricultural operation in the first section during at least a portion of the machine pass based on the first relative location;
- and
- deactivating the agricultural operation during the portion of the machine pass based on the second relative location.
6 more elements
A control system for a mobile agricultural machine, the control system comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the at least one processor to:
- receive current field data representing a current agricultural operation performed by the mobile agricultural machine on a field;
- receive prior field data representing a prior agricultural operation performed on one or more areas of the field prior to the current agricultural operation;
- generate a field metric based on the current field data and the prior field data, wherein the field metric represents one or more of:
- an estimate amount of remaining crop to be processed for the current agricultural operation;
- an estimate amount of remaining field area for the current agricultural operation;
- or
- an estimate amount of remaining time for the current agricultural operation;
- and
- generate a control output based on the field metric.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.