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US 9,232,693 B2Granted
System and method for sensing and mapping stalk diameter
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsLarry L. Hendrickson, Niels Dybro, Noel W. Anderson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for sensing the diameter of stalks of plants senses the position of a laterally movable member arranged to contact a stalk of a plant located within an elongate gap in a row harvesting unit to determine and map the stalk diameters.
Claims30
A system for sensing the diameter of stalks of plants, the system comprising:
- a row harvesting unit with a frame defining an elongate gap along which stalks of plants move during a harvesting operation;
- a first sensor coupled to a laterally movable member arranged to contact a stalk of a plant located within the elongate gap and adapted to generate a signal representative of the position of the laterally movable member;
- and
- a processing unit adapted to derive a stalk diameter value representative of a diameter of the stalk from the signal of the first sensor and to store the stalk diameter value in a memory.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- receiving an electronic signal from a sensor associated with a laterally movable stalk contacting member, the electronic signal indicating a position of the laterally movable stalk contacting member;
- and
- determining a stalk diameter value based upon the electronic signal.
An apparatus comprising:
- a non-transitory computer-readable medium providing computer-readable programming to direct a processor to:
- receive an electronic signal from a sensor associated with a laterally movable stalk contacting member, the electronic signal indicating a position of the laterally movable stalk contacting member;
- and
- determine a stalk diameter value based upon the signal.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.