Guidance method for agricultural vehicle
AssigneeCNH America LLC
InventorsChristopher A. Brubaker, Phillip A. Cobb
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automated method and system includes an automatic guidance system (AGS) and swath pattern. The AGS steers a vehicle towing a rotary baler in an “S”, or oscillatory pattern around a predetermined approximate centerline of the swath path. The oscillatory pattern may be user defined. By steering the vehicle in an oscillatory pattern referenced to the A-B line, a windrow of crop material may be distributed into an even and optimal bale size and density by the baler. Bale chamber sensors detect an imbalance of crop density and in response, AGS adjusts an interval or amplitude of oscillatory pattern.
Claims4
A system for automatically guiding a powered vehicle towing an agricultural implement for producing an even distribution of a crop material in a bale, the system comprising:
- a powered vehicle having, a global positioning system and an automatic guidance system;
- the powered vehicle comprising a global positioning system (GPS) sensor and an automatic guidance system, the GPS sensor configured to receive information representative of a geographic location of the powered vehicle;
- and
- the automatic guidance system comprising a map stored in a data memory;
- wherein the automatic guidance system is configured to:
- receive a location information representative of a position of the powered vehicle in the field;
- retrieve map data defining a first path representing a swath;
- determine a second path that oscillates about the first path using an algorithm taking into account a projected width of a swath and a width of a chamber of a baler to determine an amplitude of the second path and determining the amplitude from a function such that each side of the chamber traverses the swath in an interval of the oscillation, the automatic guidance system generating a set of points on alternating sides of the first path, the points when connected form the second path such that multiple data points are located on each side of the first path;
- generate a steering command based on the second path;
- and
- execute the steering command by a steering system of the powered vehicle to steer the powered vehicle along a path that corresponds to the second path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.