Planter row unit downforce control with ground view sensor
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsJason D. Walter, Michael E. Frasier, Lawrence D. Green, James Z. Liu, Donald K. Landphair
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A row unit for a seeding machine includes a ground view sensor coupled to the frame. The ground view sensor is operable to sense the furrow and generate depth signals corresponding to actual sensed depth of the furrow. The row unit also includes a controller configured to receive the signals, and a downforce adjustment mechanism coupled to the frame and to the controller. The controller is configured to activate the downforce adjustment mechanism to adjust a downforce on the frame based on the signals received by the controller.
Claims19
A row unit for a seeding machine operable to plant seeds into soil, the row unit comprising:
- a frame supporting a furrow opener for opening a furrow in the soil, a gauge wheel for rolling atop the soil, a seed meter for dispensing seeds into the furrow, and a furrow closer for closing the furrow;
- a downforce adjustment mechanism operable to push the row unit frame toward the soil to engage the furrow opener, the gauge wheel, and the furrow closer with the soil;
- a ground view sensor operable to sense the furrow and generate depth signals corresponding to actual sensed depth of the furrow;
- and
- a controller configured to receive the depth signals and output a control signal to the downforce adjustment mechanism, wherein the controller is programmed to adjust the downforce adjustment mechanism to adjust a downforce on the frame based on the depth signals such that downforce is increased in response to the depth signal indicating a depth less than a set point depth, and downforce is decreased in response to the depth signal indicating a depth greater than the set point depth.
A control system for adjusting downforce on a row unit for a seeding machine based on depth of a seeding furrow, the control system comprising:
- a ground view sensor operable to sense the furrow and generate depth signals corresponding to actual sensed depth of the furrow;
- and
- a processor configured to receive the depth signals from the ground view sensor and further configured to send signals to the downforce adjustment mechanism to adjust a downforce based on the depth signals in order to provide closed-loop furrow depth adjustment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.