Controlling an agricultural system based on time to empty and refill count
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsMandar Mhalsakant Kale, Nilesh Dhavan, Alaka Singh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A weight of material remaining in a container of an application machine is detected, and operation characteristics corresponding to the operation being performed are also obtained. A time to empty value is calculated that is indicative of a time until the container on the material application machine is empty, based upon the weight of material remaining in the container of the application machine and based the operation characteristics. A control signal is generated based upon the time to empty value.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- obtaining a weight value indicative of a weight of material in a material container corresponding to a material application machine that is configured to perform an application operation to apply the material to a field;
- obtaining an operation characteristic of the application operation;
- generating a time to empty value indicative of time it takes for the material application machine to apply the material to the field to empty the material container, based on the operation characteristic and the weight value;
- and
- generating a control signal to control the material application machine based on the time to empty value.
An application machine comprising:
- a container that holds material to be applied to a field;
- an application mechanism configured to apply the material from the container to the field;
- an operator interface system;
- an application control system configured to obtain a weight value indicative of a weight of material in the container and an operation characteristic of the application operation and to generate a time to empty value indicative of time it takes for the application mechanism to apply the material to the field to empty the container, based on the operation characteristic and the weight value;
- and
- a control signal generator configured to generate a control signal to control the application machine based on the time to empty value.
An application control system comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- a data store that stores computer executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform steps comprising:
- receiving a weight value indicative of a weight of material in a material container corresponding to a material application machine that is configured to perform an application operation to apply the material to a field;
- detecting an operation characteristic of the application operation;
- generating a time to empty value indicative of time it takes for the material application machine to apply the material to the field to empty the material container, based on the operation characteristic and the weight value;
- and
- generating a control signal to control the material application machine based on the time to empty value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.