Drive quad module
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorTimothy J. Kraus
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An combination including a harvester, a generator vehicle, and a transport vehicle including a chassis, a motor, a plurality of traction devices, and a control unit aligning the transport vehicle in relation to at least one of the harvester and a previous path of the harvester. A method of positioning a train of transport vehicles in relation to a path of the harvester.
Claims30
A harvesting combination comprising:
- a harvester configured to harvest a crop from a field,
- a generator vehicle configured to generate power,
- a transport vehicle including:
- a chassis,
- a motor supported by the chassis, the motor being powered by the generator vehicle,
- a plurality of traction devices supporting the chassis, and
- a control unit aligning the transport vehicle in relation to at least one of the harvester and a previous path of the harvester;
- and
- a carrier supported by the transport vehicle to receive the crop harvested by the harvester.
The combination of claim 12, wherein the electric conductor is coupled to the carrier.
A harvesting combination comprising:
- a harvester configured to harvest a crop from a field,
- a generator vehicle configured to generate power,
- a transport vehicle powered by the generator vehicle, and
- the transport vehicle including:
- a steering system aligning the transport vehicle along a previous path of the harvester,
- a control unit controlling the steering system, and
- a receiving unit in communication with the control unit, the receiving unit receiving position data of at least one of the harvester and the previous path of the harvester;
- a carrier supported by the transport vehicle to receive the crop harvested by the harvester.
A method of positioning a train of transport vehicles in relation to a path of a harvester, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing the train of transport vehicles along a first path of harvested crops and the harvester along a second path, the second path including a crop to be harvested and being adjacent to at least a portion of the first path;
- harvesting the crops along the second path with the harvester;
- transferring power to the train of transport vehicles;
- aligning the train of transport vehicles using the transferred power along the first path to receive harvested crops from the harvester from the second path;
- aligning the harvester to harvest additional crops along a third path including a crop to be harvested;
- and
- aligning the train of transport vehicles in relation to the harvester by laterally shifting the train toward the second path using the transferred power.
The method of claim 28, wherein recording the position using at least one of a GPS system, a radio-based system, and a row-recognition system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.