Lawn mowing apparatus with mower deck alignment sensors
AssigneeSears Brands, L.L.C.
InventorsKenneth Joseph Dombrowski, Grant Kiel, Brian Todd Reese
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lawn mowing apparatus may include sensors that are fastened to both its mower deck and its chassis. The sensors may sense a position of the mower deck in relation to the chassis. The sensed position of the mower deck may be presented to the operator via a dashboard display of the lawn tractor or transmitted via a wireless signal to another device. Based on such sensed position, an operator of the lawn tractor may manually adjust the position of the mower deck until the sensed position of the mower deck is within an acceptable operating range. In some embodiments, servomotors may adjust the position of the mower deck until the sensed position of the mower deck is within an acceptable range.
Claims19
An apparatus for mowing a lawn, comprising:
- a graphical display;
- a chassis supported by a plurality of wheels;
- a mower deck coupled to the chassis via an adjustable linkage, wherein the mower deck includes a blade for mowing the lawn;
- a first position sensor coupled to the chassis and configured to generate one or more first signals indicative of a position of the chassis;
- a second position sensor coupled to the mower deck and configured to generate one or more second signals indicative of a position of the mower deck;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine based on the one or more first signals and the one or more second signals a relative position of the mower deck with respect to the chassis;
- determine, based on the determined relative position, whether realignment of the mower deck is warranted;
- and
- cause the graphical display to present a graphical representation of a sensed alignment of the mower deck.
An apparatus for mowing a lawn, comprising:
- a chassis supported by a plurality of wheels;
- a mower deck coupled to the chassis via an adjustable linkage, wherein the mower deck includes a blade for mowing the lawn;
- a plurality of motors coupled to the adjustable linkage and configured to actuate the adjustable linkage to adjust the position of the mower deck with respect to the chassis;
- a first position sensor coupled to the chassis and configured to generate one or more first signals indicative of a position of the chassis;
- a second position sensor coupled to the mower deck and configured to generate one or more second signals indicative of a position of the mower deck;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine based on the one or more first signals and the one or more second signals a relative position of the mower deck with respect to the chassis;
- determine, based on the determined relative position, whether realignment of the mower deck is warranted;
- and
- in response to determining that realignment of the mower deck is warranted, generate one or more control signals for the plurality of motors that cause the plurality of motors to actuate the adjustable linkage and realign the mower deck with respect to the chassis.
A monitoring method for a controller of a lawn mowing apparatus, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a first position sensor of the lawn mowing apparatus, one or more first signals indicative of a position of a chassis of the lawn mowing apparatus;
- receiving, from a second position sensor of the lawn mowing apparatus, one or more second signals indicative of a position of a mower deck supported by the chassis;
- determining, with the controller, based on the one or more first signals and the one or more second signals, a relative position of the mower deck with respect to the chassis;
- determining, with the controller, based on the determined relative position, whether realignment of the mower deck is warranted;
- and
- in response to determining that realignment of the mower deck is warranted, generating with the controller one or more control signals that cause a plurality of motors of the lawn mowing apparatus to actuate the adjustable linkage and realign the mower deck with respect to the chassis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.