US 6,119,442 AGranted

Combine setting autoadjust with machine vision

AssigneeCase Corporation

InventorGeorge H. Hale

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Abstract

A combine for processing crop materials includes a frame, a main body, ground support devices, a device for propelling the combine at a ground speed, an operator's station, a header including a reel rotatable at a reel speed, a feeder portion including a conveyor movable at a feeder speed, a threshing portion including a rotor rotatable at a rotor speed, a grain cleaning portion including a cleaning air fan rotatable at a cleaning air fan speed with adjustable outlet restrictions, and chaffer and grain sieves. An instrument and control system, which includes a data processing unit (DPU), a memory apparatus, an input device, an actuator, and a machine vision apparatus, monitors processing of crop materials and automatically adjusts combine settings in response thereto. A method of controlling the operations of a combine includes (a) viewing crop materials with a machine vision apparatus, (b) generating an image signal corresponding to an image of the crop materials, (c) transmitting the image signal to a DPU, (d) comparing the image signal to a setpoint within the DPU and generating an output signal corresponding to the difference therebetween, and (e) transmitting the output signal to an actuator configured to change a combine setting.

Claims31

Dependent claims

An agricultural combine for processing crop materials, the combine including a frame, a main body supported by the frame, and ground support devices for supporting the frame upon a surface of a field, the combine comprising:

a propulsion system to propel the combine at a ground speed;
a header to gather crop materials from the field, the header including a reel member rotatable at a reel speed;
a feeder to convey the crop materials from the header to the main body, the feeder including a conveyor moveable at a feeder speed;
a thresher supported by the main body for receiving the crop materials from the feeder and separating useable grain therefrom, the thresher including a rotor spaced apart from a concave by a concave gap, the rotor rotatable at a rotor speed;
a cleaning portion for cleaning the useable grain, the cleaning portion including a cleaning air fan rotatable at a fan speed, and also including a chaffer sieve and a grain sieve, each chaffer sieve and grain sieve having at least one aperture;
and
an instrument and control system for monitoring conditions of processing of the gathered crop materials and automatically adjusting settings of the combine in response to the monitored conditions, the including:
a machine vision apparatus disposed to view the crop materials being processed by the combine and to generate a crop image signal representative thereof;
an actuator for adjusting one of the ground speed, reel speed, feeder speed, rotor speed, fan speed and concave gap in response to a control signal;
and
a data processing unit (DPU) coupled to the machine vision apparatus and the actuator, the DPU configured to execute a control program to generate the control signal based at least in part on the crop image signal and to apply the control signal to the actuator, the actuator controlled at least in part by the crop image signal.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.