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US 12,623,863 B2Granted
Automatically detecting or estimating material delivery delays and machine control
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsMandar Mhalsakant Kale, William D. Graham, Omkar P. Joshi, Venkata Nagendra Pavan Kumar Nerellakunta
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Material is metered by a meter into a delivery conduit from a tank and delivered to a tool on an agricultural machine. A sensor detects when the material arrives at the tool. A delay time is detected between when the meter is activated and when the sensor detects the material. The agricultural machine is controlled based on the delay time.
Claims18
An agricultural system, comprising:
- a material application implement;
- a material tank;
- a delivery conduit coupled to the material application implement;
- a meter configured to meter material from the material tank into the delivery conduit;
- a meter control system configured to activate the meter;
- a blower that generates airflow in the delivery conduit to carry the material from the meter through the delivery conduit to the material application implement;
- a material sensor configured to sense material flowing at the material application implement and generate a sensor signal indicative of the material;
- a material flow monitoring system configured to identify a flow characteristic of the material based on the sensor signal and generate a material flow output indicative of the flow characteristic;
- a flow timing control system configured to:
- determine whether the material flowing at the material application implement meets a flow threshold based on the material flow output;
- identify a flow start delay based on when the meter is activated by the meter control system, when the material sensor senses the material, and the material flow output indicating that the material flowing at the material application implement meets the flow threshold;
- and
- a control system configured to generate a control signal to control a portion of the agricultural system based on the flow start delay.
10 more elements
A system for controlling an agricultural material application machine that includes a material meter and a material application implement, the system comprising:
- a material sensor configured to sense flow of material at the material application implement and generate a sensor signal indicative of the flow of material;
- a material flow monitoring system configured to generate a flow output indicative of a characteristic of the material flow based on the sensor signal;
- a flow timing control system configured to:
- generate estimated time delay information corresponding to material traveling between the material meter and the material application implement through a delivery conduit;
- determine when material flow of the material flowing at the material application implement meets a first flow threshold based on the flow output and generate a flow start output;
- identify a flow start delay indicative of a time that the material takes to begin flowing at the material application implement, based on flow start output, after activation of the material meter to dispense the material into the delivery conduit;
- determine when material flow of the material flowing at the material application implement drops below a second flow threshold based on the flow output and generate a flow stop output;
- detect a flow stop delay indicative of a time that the material takes to stop flowing at the material application implement, based on flow stop output, after deactivation of the material meter to stop dispensing the material into the delivery conduit;
- perform a comparison to compare the estimated time delay information to the flow start delay and the flow stop delay and update, based on the comparison, the estimated time delay information to obtain updated estimated time delay information;
- and
- a machine control system configured to generate a control signal to control the agricultural material application machine based on the updated estimated time delay information.
8 more elements
An agricultural system, comprising:
- a material application implement;
- a material tank;
- a delivery conduit coupled to the material application implement;
- a meter configured to meter material from the material tank into the delivery conduit;
- a meter control system configured to activate the meter;
- a blower that generates airflow in the delivery conduit to carry the material from the meter through the delivery conduit to the material application implement;
- a material sensor configured to sense material flowing at the material application implement and generate a sensor signal indicative of the material;
- a material flow monitoring system configured to identify a flow characteristic of the material based on the sensor signal and generate a material flow output indicative of the flow characteristic;
- a flow timing control system configured to:
- determine whether the material flowing at the material application implement meets a flow threshold based on the material flow output;
- identify a flow stop delay based on when the meter is deactivated by the meter control system, when the material sensor stops sensing the material, and the material flow output indicating that the material flowing at the material application implement meets the flow threshold;
- and
- a control system configured to generate a control signal to control a portion of the agricultural system based on the flow stop delay.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.