System and method for terahertz frequency object and crop contamination and constituent detection and handling
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsMahesh Somarowthu, Noel W. Anderson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An agricultural system with an agricultural harvester has a terahertz sensor. The terahertz sensor includes at least one a terahertz source disposed to direct electromagnetic radiation toward a harvest material of the agricultural harvester. A terahertz detector is disposed to detect the terahertz electromagnetic radiation after the terahertz electromagnetic radiation interacts with the harvest material. A controller is operably coupled to the terahertz detector and is configured to detect a harvest-related parameter based on a signal from the terahertz detector and to perform an action based on a detected parameter.
Claims17
An agricultural system, comprising:
- an agricultural harvester comprising a baler configured to gather harvest material from a field and process the gathered harvest material to generate a bale of harvest material;
- a terahertz sensor including:
- a terahertz source disposed to direct terahertz electromagnetic radiation toward the harvest material;
- and
- a terahertz detector disposed to detect the terahertz electromagnetic radiation after the terahertz electromagnetic radiation interacts with the harvest material;
- and
- a controller operably coupled to the terahertz detector, the controller being configured to:
- detect, as a detected parameter, at least one of a constituent of the harvest material, a contaminant in the bale of harvest material, a foreign object in the harvest material, or a combination thereof, based on a signal from the terahertz detector;
- and
- control the baler to eject the bale based on the detected parameter.
An agricultural system, comprising:
- an agricultural harvester configured to process harvest material to generate a bale or module of the harvest material;
- a terahertz sensor including:
- a terahertz source disposed to direct terahertz electromagnetic radiation toward the harvest material;
- and
- a terahertz detector disposed to detect the terahertz electromagnetic radiation after the terahertz electromagnetic radiation interacts with the harvest material;
- and
- a controller operably coupled to the terahertz detector, the controller being configured to:
- detect, as a detected parameter, at least one of a constituent of the harvest material, a contaminant in the harvest material, a foreign object in the harvest material, or a combination thereof, based on a signal from the terahertz detector;
- and
- generate a control signal to configure a radio frequency identification tag corresponding to the bale or module and indicating that the bale or module includes the detected parameter, wherein the controller comprises:
- a machine speed detector configured to detect a ground speed of the agricultural harvester;
- and
- a deceleration signal generator configured to generate a deceleration signal based on the detected parameter and the ground speed of the agricultural harvester;
- and
- a control signal generator configured to generate a control signal to stop the agricultural harvester based on the deceleration signal.
An agricultural system, comprising:
- a sugarcane harvester configured to process sugarcane into sugarcane billets;
- a terahertz sensor including:
- a terahertz source disposed to direct terahertz electromagnetic radiation toward the sugarcane;
- and
- a terahertz detector disposed to detect the terahertz electromagnetic radiation after the terahertz electromagnetic radiation interacts with the sugarcane;
- and
- a controller operably coupled to the terahertz detector, the controller being configured to:
- detect, as a detected parameter, a foreign object in the sugarcane billets based on a signal from the terahertz detector, the foreign object comprising a stone, plastic, or metal;
- and
- perform an action based on the detected parameter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.