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US 2022/0022364 A1Published application
Systems, methods, and apparatus for crop input variety selection
AssigneePrecision Planting LLC
InventorsJustin Vollmer, Luke STUBER
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein are systems, methods, and apparatus for agricultural planting including selecting and varying agricultural input types during an in-field operation. In one embodiment, a method calculates a partial addition of seed to a seed pool during planting to minimize or eliminate seeds in the seed pool (520) as a boundary is crossed.
Claims23
A method of minimizing or elitninating seeds in a seed pool when crossing a boundary during planting comprising:
- adding seeds to a seed pool from a first compartment;
- obtaining one or more of seed size of the seeds, an average number of seeds in the seed pool, a maximum number of seeds in the seed pool, and a distance traveled per dump of seeds into the seed pool;
- determining whether a distance to the boundary is greater than a distance to dispense all seeds from the seed pool and less than a distance to dispense all seeds from a full dump of seeds into the seed pool;
- activating an actuator to partially open a passageway between the first compartment and the seed pool in which the partially open passageway is directly proportional to seed size to create a partial dump;
- and
- activating the actuator to close the passageway after the partial dump.
3 more elements
A method of minimizing or eliminating seeds in a seed pool when crossing a boundary during planting comprising;
- adding seeds to a seed pool from a first compartment;
- obtaining an average number of seeds in the seed pool, a distance traveled per dump of seeds into the seed pool, and a target distance per dump;
- determining whether a distance to the boundary is greater than a distance to dispense all seeds from the seed pool and less than a distance to dispense all seeds from a full dump of seeds into the seed pool;
- activating an actuator to open a passageway between the first compartment and the seed pool in which a time for opening is less than a full communication time;
- and
- activating the actuator to close the passageway after the dump.
3 more elements
A seed variety system, comprising:
- a seed pool for dispensing seed during planting operations;
- and
- processing logic to perform operations including
- adding seeds to a seed pool from a first compartment,
- obtaining one or more of seed size of the seeds, an average number of seeds in the seed pool, a maximum number of seeds in the seed pool, and a distance traveled per dump of seeds into the seed pool,
- determining whether a distance to the boundary is greater than a distance to dispense all seeds from the seed pool and less than a distance to dispense all seeds from a full dump of seeds into the seed pool,
- activating an actuator to partially open a passageway between the first compartment and the seed pool in which the partially open passageway is directly proportional to seed size to create a partial dump, and
- activating the actuator to close the passageway after the partial dump.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.