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US 9,983,048 B1Granted
System and method for measuring grain cart weight
AssigneeBitstrata Systems Inc.
InventorsIan Robert Meier, Michael David Lockerbie
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system of detecting loading and unloading of mobile containers such as grain carts utilizes two low pass filters to determine whether the contents of the container are changing by subtracting one filter signal from the other, and using the sign of the difference. Weighing performance is improved by utilizing accelerometers to compensate for measurement dynamics and non-level orientation. Failure and degradation of weight sensors is detected by testing sensor half bridges. Loading and unloading weights can be tied to specific vehicles by utilizing RF beacons.
Claims16
A system for determining when a container is being loaded or unloaded, said system comprising:
- a set of weight sensors attached to the container in a fixed orientation, said set of weight sensors operative to generate a set of weight signals for the container and its load;
- a first controller coupled with the set of weight sensors and operative to receive the set of weight signals therefrom via an interface, the first controller operative, based thereon, to determine whether or not the container is being unloaded or loaded, the first controller comprising:
- a first low pass filter operative to accept the set of weight signals and filter the set of weight signals to generate a first filtered signal, the first low pass filter characterized by at least a first delay;
- a second low pass filter having different characteristics than the first low pass filter and operative to accept the set of weight signals and filter the set of weight signals to generate a second filtered signal, the second low pass filter characterized by at least a second delay that is longer than the first delay;
- and
- a first set of logic coupled with the first and second low pass filters and operative to receive the first and second filtered signals and to generate a first weight-changing signal based thereon, the first weight-changing signal having a first value or a second value,
- wherein the first set of logic is operative to generate the first weight-changing signal having the first value when a difference between the first filtered signal and the second filtered signal has a constant sign of a first polarity, and generate the first weight-changing signal having the second value when the difference between the first filtered signal and the second filtered signal has a changing sign, the first value being indicative of the container being loaded—or unloaded, the second value being indicative of the container not being loaded or unloaded,
- wherein the first weight-changing signal is indicative of the container being unloaded when the first polarity of the difference between the first and second filtered signals is one of negative or positive and the first weight-changing signal is indicative of the container being loaded when the first polarity of the difference between the first and second filtered signals is the other of positive or negative, and
- wherein the first set of logic is operative to determine a weight of the container when the first weight-changing signal changes from the first value to the second value.
6 more elements
A method for determining when a container is being loaded or unloaded, said method comprising:
- accepting a set of weight signals from a set of weight sensors via an interface;
- low pass filtering of the set of weight signals with a first low pass filter to generate a first filtered signal, the first low pass filter characterized by at least a first delay;
- low pass filtering of the set of weight signals with a second low pass filter different from the first low pass filter to generate a second filtered signal, the second low pass filter characterized by at least a second delay that is longer than the first delay;
- determining a difference between the first and second filtered signals;
- generating a first weight-changing signal having a first value or a second value based on the determined difference between the first and second filtered signals, said weight-changing signal indicating whether or not the weight in the container is changing due to either loading or unloading;
- and
- determining a weight of the container when the first weight-changing signal changes from the first value to the second value,
- wherein the first value is generated when the determined difference between the first filtered signal and the second filtered signal has a constant sign of a first polarity, and the second value is generated when the determined difference has a changing sign, and
- wherein the first weight-changing signal is indicative of the container being unloaded when the first polarity of the difference between the first and second filtered signals is one of negative or positive and the first weight-changing signal is indicative of the container being loaded when the first polarity of the difference between the first and second filtered signals is the other of negative or positive.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.