Monitoring crop in a crop bin
AssigneeAGCO International GmbH
InventorsMartin Peter Christiansen, Morten Stigaard Laursen, Ramon Buchaca Tarragona, Steffen Korsgaard, Dan Hermann, Morten Leth Bilde
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mechanism for predicting a volume of crop stored by a crop bin of a harvesting machine. The crop bin has a variable interior shape. A crop volume determining system produces shape information, responsive to changes in the variable interior shape of the crop bin, and crop level information, responsive to a crop level within the crop bin. The crop volume processing system processes the shape information and the crop level information to predict the volume of crop.
Claims15
A harvesting machine comprising:
- a crop bin for storing harvested crop, wherein the crop bin has a variable interior shape;
- and
- a crop volume determining system for determining a volume of crop stored by the crop bin, the crop volume determining system comprising:
- a bin shape sensing arrangement configured to generate shape information that changes responsive to changes in the interior shape of the crop bin;
- a crop level sensing arrangement configured to generate crop level information that changes responsive to a level of crop within the crop bin;
- and
- a processing system configured to process the shape information and the crop level information to predict a volume of crop stored by the crop bin.
A method for determining a volume of crop stored by the crop bin having a variable interior shape, the method comprising:
- generating, using a bin capacity sensor, shape information that changes responsive to changes in the interior shape of the crop bin;
- generating, using a crop level sensor, crop level information that changes responsive to a level of crop within the crop bin;
- and
- processing the capacity information and the crop level information to predict a volume of crop stored by the crop bin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.