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US 12,757,828 B2Granted
Automatic auger engagement for unloading operation
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsKellen E. O'Connor, Sara C. O'Connor, Jeremy J. Faust, Ryan R. White
Life of this patent
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Abstract
On a harvester, unload conditions are detected to determine whether an unloading operation should be commenced. If so, once a receiving vehicle is in a target position relative to a spout, an unloading auger is automatically engaged to unload harvested material from a clean grain tank, through the spout, into the receiving vehicle. When stop criteria are detected, then the unloading auger is automatically disengaged.
Claims18
A computer implemented method, comprising:
- automatically detecting that an unload commencement criterion is present based on a determination that a detected level of harvested material in a storage tank of a harvester meets a target level;
- based on detecting that the unload commencement criterion is present, automatically generating a spout swing control signal to control a spout swing actuator to move a spout from a retracted position to a deployed position;
- after detecting that the unload commencement criterion is present, automatically detecting an engagement criterion indicating that an unloading conveyor on the harvester is to be engaged;
- and
- automatically generating a conveyor start control signal to control the unloading conveyor to unload at least a portion of the harvested material from the harvester through the spout based on detection of the engagement criterion.
2 more elements
An agricultural system, comprising:
- an unloading conveyor on a harvester configured to convey harvested material from the harvester to a receiving container;
- a spill sensor configured to detect occurrence of material spill from the receiving container;
- at least one processor;
- an engagement criterion detection system, implemented by the at least one processor, configured to automatically detect an engagement criterion indicating that an unloading conveyor on a harvester is to be engaged;
- a disengagement criteria detection system, implemented by the at least one processor, configured to automatically detect a disengagement criterion based on the material spill detected by the spill sensor, the disengagement criterion indicating that the unloading conveyor on the harvester is to be disengaged;
- and
- an output generator, implemented by the at least one processor, configured to automatically generate a conveyor start control signal to control the unloading conveyor to unload harvested material from the harvester to the receiving container through a spout based on detection of the engagement criterion and to automatically generate a conveyor stop control signal to control the unloading conveyor to stop unloading harvested material from the harvester based on detection of the disengagement criterion.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.