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US 9,807,932 B2Granted
Probabilistic control of an agricultural machine
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorsWilliam D. French, Jr., Aaron J. Bruns, Janos Kis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A set of sensor inputs are received in an agricultural machine. The sensor inputs are indicative of sensed or measured variables. A probabilistic control system probabilistically infers values for another set of variables and generates a set of control signals based on the probabilistically inferred values.
Claims15
An agricultural mobile machine, comprising:
- a plurality of different sensors, each sensing a different variable and generating a corresponding sensor signal indicative of the sensed variable;
- a plurality of different controllable subsystems;
- a probabilistic controller configured to receive the sensor signals and generate a set of estimated variable values for unobserved variables and generate a plurality of different subsystem control signals to control the plurality of different subsystems, based on the sensor signals and the estimated variable values for the unobserved variables, wherein the probabilistic controller comprises a probabilistically inferred value generator that generates the estimated variable values for the unobserved variables;
- a control signal generator that generates the plurality of different subsystem control signals:
- and
- a material processing system that processes material in a harvesting operation and
- wherein the probabilistically inferred value generator comprises:
- a material stream volume estimator component that generates estimated values indicative of material volumes at different places in in the material processing system during the harvesting operation:
- and
- a crop behavior characteristic estimator component that generates estimated values indicative of processing characteristics of a crop being harvested during the harvesting operation.
7 more elements
A combine, comprising:
- a plurality of different sensors, each sensing a different variable and generating a corresponding sensor signal indicative of the sensed variable;
- a plurality of different controllable subsystems;
- a material processing system that processes material in a harvesting operation;
- and
- a probabilistic controller configured to receive the sensor signals and generate a set of estimated variable values for unobserved variables and generate a plurality of different subsystem control signals to control the plurality of different subsystems, based on the sensor signals and the estimated variable values for the unobserved variables, wherein the probabilistic controller comprises a probabilistically inferred value generator that generates the estimated variable values for the unobserved variables;
- and wherein the probabilistic controller comprises:
- a material stream volume estimator component that generates estimated values indicative of material volumes at different places in in the material processing system during the harvesting operation;
- a crop behavior characteristic estimator component that generates estimated values indicative of processing characteristics of a crop being harvested during the harvesting operation:
- and
- a control signal generator that generates the plurality of different subsystem control signals, based on the sensor signals and the estimated values.
7 more elements
A method of controlling a combine, comprising:
- sensing a plurality of different variables;
- generating a corresponding sensor signal indicative of each of the sensed variables;
- probabilistically generating, using a probabilistic controller, a set of estimated variable values for unobserved variables based on the sensor signals, wherein the probabilistic controller comprises a probabilistically inferred value generator that generates the estimated variable values for the unobserved variables, wherein the combine includes a material processing system that processes material in a harvesting operation, and wherein probabilistically generating the set of estimated variable values comprises:
- generating estimated values indicative of material volumes at different places in in the material processing system during the harvesting operation;
- and
- generating estimated values indicative of processing characteristics of a crop being harvested during the harvesting operation:
- and
- generating a plurality of different subsystem control signals to control a plurality of different subsystems, based on the sensor signals and the estimated variable values for the unobserved variables.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.