Overblown grain loss detection
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsNathan R. Vandike, Rana Shakti Singh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of operating a grain harvesting machine includes: capturing images of a crop material flow in an image capture area of the grain harvesting machine; identifying a plurality of grain elements in the images; determining a velocity of each of the grain elements; determining whether each of the grain elements is likely to be overblown out of the grain harvesting machine based at least in part on the velocity of each of the grain elements; and controlling a subsystem of the grain harvesting machine at least in part based upon the determination of whether the grain elements are likely to be overblown. A grain harvesting machine for performing such a method is also disclosed.
Claims20
A method of operating a grain harvesting machine, the method comprising:
- capturing images of a crop material flow in an image capture area of the grain harvesting machine;
- identifying at least one grain element in the images;
- determining a velocity of the grain element;
- determining whether the grain element is likely to be overblown out of the grain harvesting machine based at least in part on the velocity of the grain element;
- and
- controlling a subsystem of the grain harvesting machine based at least in part on the determination of whether the grain element is likely to be overblown.
A grain harvesting machine for harvesting a crop material and separating the crop material into grain and material other than grain (MOG), comprising:
- a grain thresher configured to separate grain from MOG;
- a chaffer and sieve system located below the grain thresher;
- a blower fan configured to blow air across the chaffer and sieve system;
- at least one image capture sensor configured to capture images of a crop material flow in an image capture area of the grain harvesting machine;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- identify one or more elements of the crop material flow in the images as grain elements;
- determine a velocity of at least one of the grain elements;
- determine whether the at least one grain element is likely to be overblown out of the grain harvesting machine based at least in part on the velocity of the at least one grain element;
- and
- control at least one operating parameter of the grain harvesting machine based at least in part on the determination of whether the at least one grain element is likely to be overblown.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.