Sugarcane harvester machine data based sugar prediction and mapping
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorJason C. Buss
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sugarcane harvester includes a sensor suite configured for sensing data related to one of a crop yield, a wagon trash content, and a crop pour rate. A computing device is operable to determine a crop yield at a first time during a first time period, determine a wagon trash content at the first time, and determine a crop pour rate at the first time. The computing device may then estimate a delivered sugar weight per unit area during the first time period using an equation stored in the memory of the computing device. The inputs into the equation include the crop yield at the first time, the wagon trash content at the first time and the pour rate at the first time. The result or output of the equation is the estimated delivered sugar weight per unit area during the first time period.
Claims19
A sugarcane harvester comprising:
- a frame moveably supporting a traction element and configured for movement across a field;
- a basecutter supported by the frame and configured for severing sugarcane stalks near a ground surface;
- a chopper supported by the frame and configured for cutting the sugarcane stalks into billets;
- an extractor supported by the frame and configured for removing leaf material from the billets discharged from the chopper;
- an elevator supported by the frame and configured for receiving the billets from the chopper and lifting the billets to a discharge elevation;
- a sensor suite supported by the frame and configured for sensing data from at least one of the basecutter, the chopper, the extractor or the elevator related to a crop yield, a wagon trash content, and a crop pour rate;
- a computing device including a processor and a memory having a sugar prediction algorithm stored thereon, wherein the processor is operable to execute the sugar prediction algorithm to:
- receive data from the sensor suite at a first time during a first time period of a harvest operation;
- determine a crop yield at the first time from the data sensed at the first time during the first time period by the sensor suite;
- determine a wagon trash content at the first time from the data sensed at the first time during the first time period by the sensor suite;
- determine a crop pour rate at the first time from the data sensed at the first time during the first time period by the sensor suite;
- and
- estimate a delivered sugar weight per unit area during the first time period using an equation stored in the memory, wherein the inputs into the equation include the crop yield at the first time, the wagon trash content at the first time and the pour rate at the first time, and wherein the result of the equation is the estimated delivered sugar weight per unit area during the first time period.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising:
- an equation configured to receive as inputs into the equation a crop yield, a wagon trash content and a pour rate, and configured to generate as an output an estimated delivered sugar weight per unit area;
- instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
- receiving data from a sensor suite mounted on a sugarcane harvester at a first time during a first time period of a harvest operation;
- determining a crop yield at the first time from the data sensed at the first time during the first time period by the sensor suite;
- determining a wagon trash content at the first time from the data sensed at the first time during the first time period by the sensor suite;
- determining a crop pour rate at the first time from the data sensed at the first time during the first time period by the sensor suite;
- and
- estimating a delivered sugar weight per unit area during the first time period using the equation;
- and
- controlling an operating parameter of one of a traction element of the sugarcane harvester, a basecutter of the sugarcane harvester, a chopper of the sugarcane harvester, an extractor of the sugarcane harvester or an elevator of the sugarcane harvester, based on the estimated delivered sugar weight per unit area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.