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US 2016/0243575 A1Published application
Sprayer with automatically controlled laterally and angularly displaceable spray boom assembly
AssigneeThe Toro Company
InventorsTodd A. Otto, John R. Kess, Steve A. Swinney, II
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A turf sprayer comprises a transport vehicle that carries a laterally extending spray boom assembly. The spray boom assembly is both laterally displaceable and angularly displaceable relative to the transport vehicle. A controller uses a defined path represented by GPS coordinates to control the operation of various actuators to automatically maintain a reference point on the spray boom assembly on the desired path and to automatically maintain the spray boom assembly perpendicular to the desired path.
Claims7
A sprayer, which comprises:
- (a) a transport vehicle which carries a laterally extending spray boom assembly for spraying a spray swath of a liquid to a ground or turf surface, the spray boom assembly being laterally displaceable relative to the transport vehicle;
- (c) at least one first actuator carried on the transport vehicle and operatively connected to the spray boom assembly for effecting lateral displacement of the spray boom assembly relative to the transport vehicle;
- and
- (d) a controller for automatically controlling the operation of the at least one first actuator to cause lateral displacement of the spray boom assembly in order to maintain a reference point on the sprayer on a desired path for the reference point during successive passes of the transport vehicle over an area of the ground or turf surface that is to be sprayed.
1 more element
A sprayer, which comprises:
- (a) a transport vehicle that carries a laterally extending spray boom assembly, the spray boom assembly being both laterally displaceable and angularly displaceable relative to the transport vehicle;
- and
- (b) a controller that uses a defined path represented by navigational coordinates and that further uses heading information of the transport vehicle to cause lateral displacement and angular displacement of the spray boom assembly relative to the transport vehicle to automatically maintain a reference point on the sprayer on the desired path and to automatically maintain the spray boom assembly perpendicular to the desired path despite lateral and angular misalignment of a centerline of the transport vehicle with the desired path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.