Mobile irrigation system with plastic optical fiber network
AssigneeLindsay Corporation
InventorsMark William Miller, Steve Aikman, Bradford L. Ellison, Sandra Regia Patricia Figueiredo da Silveira
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Abstract
A mobile irrigation system broadly comprising a plurality of irrigation spans each including a mobile tower having a wheel assembly for traversing a field and a motor configured to drive the wheel assembly. The mobile irrigation system also comprises a control system including a plurality of controllers each including a processing element, and a plurality of plastic optical fiber (POF) cables serially communicatively connecting the plurality of controllers to form a local area network LAN on the mobile irrigation system.
Claims20
A mobile irrigation system comprising:
- a plurality of irrigation spans each including a mobile tower having:
- a wheel assembly for traversing a field;
- and
- a motor configured to drive the wheel assembly;
- and
- a control system comprising:
- a plurality of controllers each including a processing element;
- and
- a plurality of plastic optical fiber (POF) cables serially communicatively connecting the plurality of controllers to form a local area network (LAN) on the mobile irrigation system.
A mobile irrigation system comprising:
- a plurality of irrigation spans each including a mobile tower having:
- a wheel assembly for traversing a field;
- and
- a motor configured to drive the wheel assembly;
- and
- a control system comprising:
- a plurality of controllers each including a processing element;
- and
- a plurality of plastic optical fiber (POF) cables serially communicatively connecting the plurality of controllers,
- wherein at least one of the plurality of controllers is configured to repeat a signal received via a first one of the plurality of POF cables to a second one of the plurality of POF cables to ensure signal integrity.
A mobile irrigation system comprising:
- a plurality of irrigation spans each including a mobile tower having:
- a wheel assembly for traversing a field;
- and
- a motor configured to drive the wheel assembly;
- and
- a control system comprising:
- a plurality of controllers each including a processing element, at least some of the plurality of controllers mounted on the mobile irrigation towers;
- a plurality of peripheral devices for obtaining agricultural information or information pertaining to the mobile irrigation system;
- and
- a plurality of plastic optical fiber (POF) cables serially communicatively connecting the plurality of controllers and the plurality of peripheral devices to form a local area network (LAN) on the mobile irrigation system, each of the plurality of POF cables including a plurality of fibers, wherein one of the plurality of fibers is a transmission line and another one of the plurality of fibers is a receiving line,
- wherein at least one of the plurality of controllers is configured to repeat a signal received via a first one of the plurality of POF cables to a second one of the plurality of POF cables to ensure signal integrity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.