Automated image-based receiving vehicle boundary detection and control
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsJeremy J. Faust, Kellen O'Connor, Matthew S. Woodall
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A harvesting machine is configured to gather harvested material into the harvesting machine during a harvesting operation. A conveyance subsystem configured to convey the harvested material from the harvesting machine to a receiving vehicle during the harvesting operation. An image capture system generates an image of the receiving vehicle and an image processor uses a machine learning system to recognize a boundary of the receiving vehicle. A control system determines a position of the receiving vehicle boundary relative to the harvesting machine, and generates a control signal based on the identified receiving vehicle boundary.
Claims18
A material conveying vehicle, comprising:
- a material conveyance subsystem that conveys material to a receiving vehicle;
- a camera that captures an image of the receiving vehicle;
- an image processing system configured to generate derived information based on the image;
- a machine learning system that identifies, based on the derived information, at least one corner of an edge of a receiving area of the receiving vehicle and generates a pixel location of the at least one corner in the image;
- a boundary identification system that identifies a boundary of the receiving area of the receiving vehicle based on the pixel location of the at least one corner;
- and
- a control signal generator generating a control signal to control the material conveyance subsystem based on the identified boundary of the receiving area.
A control system for controlling a material conveyance operation, comprising:
- a camera that captures an image of a receiving vehicle receiving material from a material conveying vehicle;
- an image processing system configured to generate derived information based on the image;
- a machine learning system that identifies, based on the derived information, at least one corner of an opening of the receiving vehicle based on the image and generates a pixel location of the at least one corner in the image;
- a boundary identification system that identifies a plurality of upper edges that define a boundary of the opening of the receiving vehicle based on the pixel location of the at least one corner;
- and
- a control signal generator generating a control signal to control the material conveyance operation based on the identified plurality of upper edges that define the boundary of the opening.
A method of controlling a material conveyance operation that conveys material from a material conveying vehicle to a material receiving vehicle, the method comprising:
- capturing an image of the material receiving vehicle receiving material from the material conveying vehicle, the image including at least a portion of a material receptacle of the material receiving vehicle;
- performing feature extraction using a machine learning system to identify a plurality of corners of the portion of the material receptacle of the material receiving vehicle based on the image and to identify pixel locations of the plurality of corners in the image;
- identifying a boundary of an opening of the material receptacle of the material receiving vehicle based on the pixel locations of the plurality of corners of the portion of the material receptacle of the material receiving vehicle;
- and
- generating a control signal to control the material conveyance operation based on the identified boundary of the opening of the material receptacle of the material receiving vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.