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US 7,844,378 B2Granted
Farm apparatus having implement sidehill drift compensation
AssigneeTrimble Navigation Limited
InventorArthur F. Lange
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method using GPS for dynamically adjusting side-to-side positioning of a farm implement along a geographical path.
Claims26
An apparatus for steering a vehicle in order to guide a farm implement along a desired path, comprising:
- a compensation computer having a first sidehill computer to compute a roll height compensation from a fixed function of a roll angle of said vehicle and a height of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) antenna disposed on said vehicle;
- and a second sidehill computer to compute a sidehill tracking compensation from a variable sidehill tracking function of said roll angle, said variable sidehill tracking function determined to compensate a sidehill tracking error at least partly due to implement sidehill drift;
- and
- a sidehill compensator to determine a compensated crosstrack error based on said desired implement path, GNSS position measurements derived from GNSS signals received in said GNSS antenna, said roll height compensation and said tracking compensation;
- said compensated crosstrack error to assist steering said vehicle in order to guide said implement to said desired path.
2 more elements
A method for steering a vehicle in order to guide a farm implement along a desired path, comprising:
- computing a roll height compensation based on a fixed function of a roll angle of said vehicle and a height of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) antenna disposed on said vehicle;
- computing a sidehill tracking compensation based on a variable sidehill tracking function of said roll angle, said variable sidehill tracking function from a sidehill tracking error at least partly due to implement sidehill drift;
- and
- determining a compensated crosstrack error based on said desired implement path, GNSS position measurements derived from GNSS signals received in said GNSS antenna, said roll height compensation and said tracking compensation;
- said compensated crosstrack error for use for steering said vehicle in order to guide said implement to said desired path.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.