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US 8,942,893 B2Granted
Predictive boom shape adjustment
AssigneeTrimble Navigation Limited
InventorsUriel Rosa, Arthur F. Lange, John William Peake, Gurcan Aral, Gregory Daniel Chiocco
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A boom is attached to an application vehicle for applying a product during an agricultural application. The boom includes one or more sections that can be dynamically adjusted to satisfy one or more adjustment criteria. A boom controller communicates actuation commands to a boom adjustment system to dynamically adjust the shape of the boom.
Claims29
A method for adjusting a shape of a boom that is adjustably coupled to an application vehicle, the boom having a boom section, the method comprising:
- receiving a current motion of the application vehicle from a motion sensor;
- anticipating, based on the current motion, that an adjustment criterion will not be satisfied at a projected coordinate corresponding to a portion of the boom;
- determining one or more latency values by referencing a memory component, wherein the one or more latency values are stored in the memory component, wherein the one or more latency values comprise an amount of time associated with at least one of information retrieval and computation;
- and
- determining, based at least in part on the one or more latency values, an actuation command configured to cause a boom actuation system to adjust a shape of the boom before the portion of the boom reaches the projected coordinate;
- communicating the actuation command to the boom actuation system;
- receiving a measurement from at least one of a plurality of downward-looking sensors attached to the boom, the measurement indicating the distance from the at least one downward-looking sensor to a ground surface substantially beneath the downward-looking sensor;
- determining, based on the measurement, that the adjustment criterion is not satisfied;
- and
- adjusting, upon determining that the adjustment criterion is not satisfied, the actuation command.
7 more elements
A system for adjusting a shape of a boom that is adjustably coupled to an application vehicle, the system comprising:
- a motion sensor configured to determine a current motion of the application vehicle, wherein the current motion comprises a speed, a direction of travel, and a steering angle;
- a global positioning system (GPS) component configured to determine a current geographic position of the application vehicle;
- and
- a boom controller configured to (1) determine, based on the current motion of the application vehicle and the current geographic position of the application vehicle, a projected coordinate, the projected coordinate comprising a predicted location of a portion of the boom at a future time, (2) anticipate that an adjustment criterion will not be satisfied at the projected coordinate, and upon anticipating that the adjustment criterion will not be satisfied, (3) communicate an actuation command to a boom actuation system to adjust a shape of the boom before the portion of the boom reaches the projected coordinate.
1 more element
A method for adjusting a shape of a boom that is adjustably coupled to an application vehicle, the boom having a boom section, the method comprising:
- receiving a current motion of the application vehicle from a motion sensor;
- anticipating, based on the current motion, that an adjustment criterion will not be satisfied at a projected coordinate corresponding to a portion of the boom;
- determining one or more latency values by referencing a memory component, wherein the one or more latency values are stored in the memory component, wherein the one or more latency values comprise an amount of time associated with at least one of information retrieval and computation;
- determining, based at least in part on the one or more latency values, an actuation command configured to cause a boom actuation system to adjust a shape of the boom before the portion of the boom reaches the projected coordinate;
- and
- communicating the actuation command to the boom actuation system.
3 more elements
A system for adjusting a shape of a boom that is adjustably coupled to an application vehicle, the system comprising:
- a memory component having an operating path stored therein, the operating path comprising a plurality of geographic coordinates defining a particular path to be traversed by the application vehicle while performing an application task;
- a global positioning system (GPS) component configured to determine a current geographic position of the application vehicle and a current motion of the application vehicle, wherein the current motion comprises a current speed and a current direction of travel;
- and
- a boom controller configured to:
- determine, based on (1) the current geographic position, (2) the current motion and (3) the operating path, a projected coordinate, the projected coordinate comprising a predicted location of a portion of the boom at a future time;
- reference a topographical map comprising terrain elevation information and obstacle information, wherein the obstacle information comprises locations and dimensions of obstacles;
- anticipate that an adjustment criterion will not be satisfied at the projected coordinate;
- determine a current boom shape;
- determine an adapted boom shape based on the current boom shape, the adjustment criterion, the projected coordinate, and the topographical map;
- generate an actuation command sequence, wherein the command sequence establishes step-by-step actuator positions;
- determine one or more latency values by referencing a memory component, wherein the latency values are stored in the memory component;
- refine the actuation command sequence based on the one or more latency values;
- and
- communicate the refined command sequence to a boom actuation system to cause the boom actuation system to achieve the adapted boom shape before the portion of the boom reaches the projected coordinate.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.