System and method for trajectory control of a transport vehicle used with a harvester
AssigneeCNH Industrial America LLC
InventorsGuoping Wang, Riccardo Morselli, Olivier Vanhercke, Christopher Foster
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A control system and method is provided to control the trajectory of a transport vehicle (20) to follow the trajectory of a harvester (10). The harvester can send control information such as the harvester's current position and future position waypoints to the transport vehicle. The control system can then use the information from the harvester to determine the trajectory for the transport vehicle.
Claims20
A method for controlling a trajectory of a transport vehicle during an unload while travelling operation with a harvester, the method comprising:
- operating a harvester along an unknown travel path;
- measuring a position and velocity for the harvester with a first global positioning system;
- measuring a position and velocity for the transport vehicle with a second global positioning system;
- determining an unload tube position for the harvester;
- calculating future waypoints for the harvester using the measured position and velocity for the harvester;
- calculating a trajectory for the transport vehicle using the calculated future waypoints, the determined unload tube position, the measured position and velocity of the transport vehicle, and the measured position and velocity of the harvester;
- transmitting the calculated trajectory with commands from a controller to a steering system for the transport vehicle;
- and
- steering the transport vehicle with the steering system along the calculated trajectory in response to the commands received by the steering system from the controller.
A control system to control a trajectory of a transport vehicle during an unload while travelling operation with a harvester, the control system comprising:
- a first global positioning system device to determine a position and velocity of the harvester;
- a second global positioning system device to determine a position and velocity of the transport vehicle;
- a configurable parameter corresponding to a dimensional configuration of an unload tube, the configurable parameter being used to determine a position of the unload tube for the harvester;
- a first controller comprising a microprocessor to execute a first computer program to calculate a plurality of predicted future waypoints for the harvester using the position and velocity of the harvester from the first global positioning system device and a harvester yaw rate;
- and
- a second controller comprising a microprocessor to execute a second computer program to calculate a trajectory for the transport vehicle using the position and velocity of the harvester from the first global positioning system device, the position and velocity of the transport vehicle from the second global positioning system device, the determined unload tube position and the plurality of predicted future waypoints from the first controller.
A method for calculating predicted future waypoints for a harvester having an unknown travel path and coordinating travel of a vehicle with the harvester, the method comprising:
- receiving a global positioning system position, a global positioning system velocity and a yaw rate for a harvester;
- calculating a predicted path for the harvester using the received global positioning system position, global positioning system velocity and yaw rate;
- receiving a predetermine distance interval and a predetermined number of waypoints;
- calculating the predicted future waypoints for the harvester using the calculated predicted path, the predetermined distance interval and the predetermined number of waypoints;
- transmitting commands corresponding to the calculated predicted future waypoints for the harvester from a controller to a steering system for the vehicle;
- and
- automatically steering the vehicle with the steering system in response to the commands to coordinate travel of the vehicle with the harvester.
A system to generate predicted future position waypoints for a harvester having an unknown travel path, the system comprising:
- a global positioning system device to determine a position and velocity of the harvester;
- a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensors being operational to measure operating parameters of the harvester;
- a waypoint calculation unit, the waypoint calculation unit being in communication with the global positioning system device to receive the determined harvester position and velocity and being in communication with the plurality of sensors to receive the measured operating parameters of the harvester;
- and
- the waypoint calculation unit being operational to generate a plurality of predicted future position waypoints for the harvester using the determined harvester position and velocity and the measured operating parameters of the harvester.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.