Harvester unloading control system
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsAshish Apte, Sujana Ramesh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A harvester receives obstacle and turn information indicative of positions of obstacles and the locations of turns. A relative position of the harvester and a receiving vehicle is detected and control signals are generated to control unloading functionality, which may include an unloading auger, a spout position and/or a flap position during unloading, while the obstacle is being avoided and/or while a turn is being navigated. An indication of some or all of the relative position, obstacle and turn information, and control signals can be uploaded to a remote server computing system for use in performing future machine control and analytics.
Claims20
An agricultural system, comprising:
- a vehicle position detector that receives a location of an obstacle in a field and that determines a relative position of an agricultural harvester relative to a material receiving vehicle as the obstacle is avoided, by at least one of the agricultural harvester or the material receiving vehicle, during a time when unloading functionality on the agricultural harvester transfers material from the agricultural harvester to the material receiving vehicle;
- and
- a control signal generator that generates a control signal to automatically control the unloading functionality on the agricultural harvester based on the relative position of the agricultural harvester relative to the material receiving vehicle and applies the control signal to the unloading functionality while the obstacle is avoided by at least one of the agricultural harvester or the material receiving vehicle.
An agricultural harvester control system, comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- a data store storing computer executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform steps comprising:
- receiving a location of an obstacle in a field;
- determining a relative position of an agricultural harvester relative to a material receiving vehicle as the obstacle is avoided, by at least one of the agricultural harvester or the material receiving vehicle, during a time when unloading functionality on the agricultural harvester transfers material from the agricultural harvester to the material receiving vehicle;
- generating a control signal to automatically control unloading functionality on the agricultural harvester based on the relative position of the agricultural harvester relative to the material receiving vehicle;
- and
- applying the control signal to the unloading functionality while the obstacle is avoided by the agricultural harvester and the material receiving vehicle.
An agricultural harvester, comprising:
- a harvesting system configured to harvest material from a field;
- unloading functionality configured to unload the material from the agricultural harvester to a material receiving vehicle;
- a vehicle position detector that receives a location of an obstacle in the field and that determines a relative position of the agricultural harvester relative to the material receiving vehicle as the obstacle is avoided, by at least one of the agricultural harvester or the material receiving vehicle, during a time when unloading functionality on the agricultural harvester transfers material from the agricultural harvester to the material receiving vehicle;
- a control signal generator that generates a control signal to automatically control the unloading functionality on the agricultural harvester based on the relative position of the agricultural harvester relative to the material receiving vehicle and applies the control signal to the unloading functionality while the obstacle is avoided by the agricultural harvester and the material receiving vehicle;
- and
- a communication system configured to provide an indication of the location of the obstacle, an indication of the relative position, and an indication of the control signal to a remote server computing system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.