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US 12,708,070 B2Granted
Systems and methods for corn head control
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsNathan R. Vandike, Troy M. Heims
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mobile agricultural corn harvester comprises a non-header portion and a header portion (or header). The mobile agricultural corn harvester further includes a material other than grain (MOG) intake characteristic sensor, disposed on the non-header portion, configured to detect MOG intake and generate sensor data indicative of MOG intake. The mobile agricultural harvester further includes a control system configured to determine a control action based on the sensor data and to generate an action signal to control a controllable subsystem, such as a deck plate actuator a header speed actuator, or a header position actuator, based on the determined control action.
Claims16
A mobile agricultural harvester comprising:
- a non-header portion;
- a header coupled to the non-header portion;
- a first material other than grain (MOG) intake characteristic sensor, disposed on the non-header portion, configured to:
- detect a first MOG intake characteristic, indicative of MOG intake, at a first location;
- and
- generate first MOG intake sensor data indicative of a first MOG intake value based on the first MOG intake characteristic at the first location;
- a second MOG intake characteristic sensor configured to:
- detect a second MOG intake characteristic indicative of MOG intake at a second location that is outside of the non-header portion and spaced apart from the first location;
- and
- generate second MOG intake sensor data indicative of a second MOG intake value based on the second MOG intake characteristic at the second location;
- and
- a control system configured to:
- aggregate the first MOG intake value and the second MOG intake value to generate an aggregate MOG intake value;
- generate a comparison result indicative of a comparison of the aggregate MOG intake value to a threshold intake value;
- and
- control the mobile agricultural harvester based on the comparison result.
13 more elements
A computer implemented method of controlling a mobile agricultural harvester, the computer implemented method comprising:
- detecting, with a grain loss sensor, a characteristic indicative of grain loss;
- determining a grain loss value based on the detected characteristic indicative of grain loss;
- detecting, with a first material other than grain (MOG) intake characteristic sensor disposed on the mobile agricultural harvester, a first MOG intake characteristic outside of a non-header portion, the first MOG intake characteristic comprising at least one of:
- an amount of MOG expelled by the mobile agricultural harvester, or
- an amount of MOG on a header coupled to the non-header portion of the mobile agricultural harvester;
- and
- determining a first MOG intake value based on the first MOG intake characteristic;
- detecting, with a second MOG intake characteristic sensor disposed on the non-header portion, a second MOG intake characteristic different than the first MOG intake characteristic;
- determining a second MOG intake value based on the second MOG intake characteristic;
- and
- controlling a header speed actuator of the mobile agricultural harvester to adjust a speed of a component of the header and controlling a deck plate actuator of the mobile agricultural harvester to control a spacing between a pair of deck plates of the header of the mobile agricultural harvester based on the first MOG intake value, the second MOG intake value, and the grain loss value.
8 more elements
An agricultural corn harvesting system comprising:
- a non-header portion;
- a corn header coupled to the non-header portion;
- a deck plate actuator configured to control a spacing between a pair of deck plates;
- a header speed actuator configured to control a speed of a component of the corn header;
- a first material other than grain (MOG) intake characteristic sensor, disposed on the non-header portion, configured to detect a first MOG intake characteristic within the non-header portion indicative of MOG intake and generate first sensor data indicative of a first MOG intake value;
- a second MOG intake characteristic sensor configured to detect, at a location outside of the non-header portion, a second MOG intake characteristic indicative of MOG intake and generate second sensor data indicative of a second MOG intake value;
- a grain loss sensor configured to detect a characteristic indicative of grain loss and generate grain loss sensor data indicative of a grain loss value;
- and
- a control system configured to:
- aggregate the first MOG intake value and the second MOG intake value to generate an aggregate MOG intake value;
- generate a first comparison result indicative of a comparison of the aggregate MOG intake value to a threshold intake value;
- generate a second comparison result indicative of a comparison of the grain loss value to a threshold grain loss value;
- determine a control action based on the first comparison result and the second comparison result;
- and
- control at least one of the deck plate actuator or the header speed actuator based on the control action.
12 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.