Header height control system for an agricultural harvester
AssigneeCNH Industrial America LLC
InventorsJohn H. Posselius, Jeffrey B. Fay, II
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An agricultural harvester includes a chassis, a header carried by the chassis, and a header height control system. The header is movable in upward and downward directions. The header height control system includes an electrical processing circuit, a non-contact sensor and a contact sensor. The non-contact sensor is positioned to sense a crop canopy ahead of the header. The contact sensor is positioned to sense an actual ground position relative to the header. The electrical processing circuit is coupled with and receives signals from each of the non-contact sensor and the contact sensor. The electrical processing circuit is operable to predict an upcoming ground position based upon the sensed crop canopy and actual ground position.
Claims12
An agricultural harvester having a cab, comprising:
- a chassis;
- a header carried by the chassis, the header being movable in upward and downward directions;
- and
- a header height control system including
- an electrical processing circuit which controls movement of the header;
- a non-contact sensor connected to the electrical processing circuit and positioned on at least one of the cab and the header, the non-contact sensor positioned to sense a crop canopy position ahead of the header;
- and
- a contact sensor connected to the electrical processing circuit and positioned on the ground adjacent the header, the contact sensor positioned to sense an actual ground position relative to the header,
- wherein the electrical processing circuit receives signals of the crop canopy position ahead of the header from the non-contact sensor and signals of the actual ground position from the contact sensor on the ground adjacent the header, and a distance between the sensed crop canopy at a location ahead of the header and the actual ground position below the header is determined, thereafter an actual ground position is sensed and determined by the contact sensor at the location in which the crop canopy was sensed by the non-contact sensor, and the electrical processing circuit moveably adjusts the header for receiving upcoming crop based upon at least those determinations.
A header height control system for a header on an agricultural harvester, the header height control system comprising:
- the header;
- a non-contact sensor positioned on the header to sense a crop canopy position ahead of the header;
- a contact sensor positioned on the ground adjacent the header to sense an actual ground position of the header;
- and
- an electrical processing circuit at least electrically connected to the header to control movement of the header, the electrical processing circuit coupled with the non-contact sensor and the contact sensor, wherein the electrical processing circuit receives signals of the crop canopy position ahead of the header from the non-contact sensor and signals of the actual ground position from the contact sensor on the ground adjacent the header, and a distance between the sensed crop canopy at a location ahead of the header and the actual ground position adjacent the header is determined, thereafter an actual ground position is sensed and determined by the contact sensor at the location in which the crop canopy was sensed by the non-contact sensor, and the electrical processing circuit moveably adjusts the header for receiving upcoming crop based upon at least those determinations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.