Speed control for harvester
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsJeffrey J. Simoneaux, Jason C. Buss
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A harvester includes a separator configured to separate a cut crop into a billet material and extraneous plant matter, a billet loss sensor configured to generate a first signal indicative of the amount of billet material that is lost and unharvested at the separator; a trash sensor configured to generate a second signal indicative of the amount of the extraneous plant matter that is harvested from the separator, and a control unit configured to, based at least partly on the first signal and the second signal, determine a preferred ground speed of the harvester and/or a preferred separator speed of the harvester.
Claims16
A harvester comprising:
- a separator configured to separate a cut crop into a billet material and extraneous plant matter,
- a billet loss sensor configured to generate a first signal indicative of the amount of billet material that is lost and unharvested at the separator;
- a trash sensor configured to generate a second signal indicative of the amount of the extraneous plant matter that is harvested from the separator;
- and
- a control unit configured to, based at least partly on the first signal and the second signal, determine a preferred ground speed of the harvester and/or a preferred separator speed of the separator,
- wherein the control unit is configured to determine the preferred separator speed of the separator based at least partly on the first signal and the second signal, and wherein the control unit is further configured to calculate a plurality of financial costs at different speeds of the separator, determine a minimum financial cost of the plurality of financial costs, and control a speed of the separator at the preferred separator speed to correspond to the minimum financial cost,
- wherein calculating the plurality of financial costs includes:
- (i) selecting a set of candidate separator speeds within an operating range of the separator;
- and
- (ii) for each candidate separator speed, computing a respective financial cost based at least partly on the first signal and the second signal;
- and
- wherein controlling the speed of the separator includes automatically commanding the separator to the candidate separator speed corresponding to the minimum financial cost.
A control system for a harvester having a separator for separating a cut crop into a billet material and extraneous plant matter, the separator including a fan, the control system configured to:
- monitor an amount of the billet material that is lost and unharvested at the separator;
- monitor an amount of the extraneous plant matter that is harvested from the separator;
- calculate a financial cost of the lost billet material and the harvested extraneous plant matter based on the monitored amounts of billet material and extraneous plant matter and further based on an external input, and
- calculate a plurality of financial costs at different speeds of the fan, determine a minimum financial cost of the plurality of financial costs, and control a speed of the fan to correspond to the minimum financial cost,
- wherein calculating the plurality of financial costs at different speeds of the fan includes:
- (i) selecting a set of candidate fan speeds within an operating range of the fan;
- and
- (ii) for each candidate fan speed, computing a respective financial cost based on the monitored amounts and the external input;
- and
- wherein controlling the speed of the fan includes automatically driving the fan to the candidate fan speed corresponding to the minimum financial cost without requiring operator selection of the candidate fan speed.
A control system for a harvester having a separator for separating a cut crop into a billet material and extraneous plant matter, the control system configured to:
- monitor an amount of the billet material that is harvested;
- monitor an amount of the billet material that is lost and unharvested from the separator;
- monitor an amount of the extraneous plant matter that is harvested from the separator;
- calculate a financial return of the harvested billet material in view of the lost billet material, the harvested extraneous plant matter, and further based on an external input;
- and
- calculate a plurality of financial returns at different speeds of the harvester, determine a maximum financial return of the plurality of financial returns, and control a speed of the harvester to correspond to the maximum financial return,
- wherein calculating the plurality of financial returns at different speeds of the harvester includes:
- (i) selecting a set of candidate ground speeds within an operating range of the harvester;
- and
- (ii) for each candidate ground speed, computing a respective financial return based on (a) the monitored amount of billet material that is harvested, (b) the monitored amount of billet material that is lost and unharvested, (c) the monitored amount of extraneous plant matter that is harvested, and (d) the external input;
- and
- wherein controlling the speed of the harvester includes automatically commanding the harvester to the candidate ground speed corresponding to the maximum financial return.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.