Control system for agricultural equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10281905-B2
Application number	US-201514862497-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 23, 2015
Priority date	Sep 23, 2015
Publication date	May 7, 2019
Grant date	May 7, 2019

Abstract

In an agricultural machine, sensor signal variability is identified, over a period of time. A control system deadband is identified, based upon the sensor signal variability. A control system uses the control system deadband to control the agricultural machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An agricultural combine, comprising:
a header configured to engage crop during movement of the agricultural combine throughout an agricultural field;
a machine orientation sensor configured to sense an orientation of the header and generate a sensor signal indicative of the sensed orientation;
a deadband identification system that repeatedly and automatically identifies a deadband corresponding to the sensor signal, intermittently, during operation, the deadband identification system comprising:
a signal characteristic capture component that captures a set of discrete sensor signal values of the given sensor signal over a given time period;
a calculation component configured to calculate a measure of signal variability based on the set of discrete sensor signal values;
a deadband identifier that identifies the deadband corresponding to the given sensor signal based on the measure of signal variability, the deadband identifier comprising:
a transform component that transforms the set of discrete sensor signal values into a frequency domain;
a frequency component identifier that identifies frequency components to be filtered; and
a filter that filters out the identified frequency components from the given sensor signal to obtain a filtered sensor signal; and

a control system that generates action signals for controlling the orientation of the header based on the filtered sensor signal.

2. The agricultural combine of claim 1 wherein the calculation component comprises:
a statistical calculation component that statistically identifies the measure of signal variability.

3. The agricultural combine of claim 2 wherein the statistical calculation component is configured to calculate a standard deviation of the discrete sensor signal values as the measure of signal variability and to identify the given deadband based on the standard deviation calculated.

4. The agricultural combine of claim 2 wherein the statistical calculation component is configured to calculate the measure of signal variability as at least one of: kurtosis, variance, skewness or range of the discrete sensor signal values.

5. A method of controlling an agricultural machine, comprising:
sensing a position of a component on the agriculture machine;
generating a sensor signal indicative of the sensed position of the component;
capturing a set of discrete sensor signal values of the sensor signal over a given time period;
automatically identifying a measure of signal variability, indicative of a level of variation in the set of discrete sensor signal values;
repeatedly identifying a deadband corresponding to the sensor signal based on the corresponding measure of signal variability, intermittently, during operation of the agricultural machine, wherein identifying the deadband comprises:
transforming the sensor signal into a frequency domain;
identifying frequency components to be filtered; and
filtering out the identified frequency components from the sensor signal to obtain a filtered sensor signal; and
generating action signals to modify the position of the component based on the filtered sensor signal.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein identifying the measure of signal variability comprises:
calculating a standard deviation of the discrete sensor signal values as the measure of signal variability.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein identifying the measure of signal variability comprises:
calculating the measure of signal variability as at least one of: kurtosis, variance, skewness or range of the discrete sensor signal values.

8. An agriculture machine, comprising:
a controllable subsystem configured to interact with crop during movement of the agricultural machine throughout an agricultural field;
a controllable subsystem sensor configured to sense a characteristic of the controllable subsystem and generate a sensor signal indicative of the sensed characteristic;
a variability identifying component configured to automatically identify a measure of signal variability corresponding to the sensor signal;
a deadband identifying system that identifies a deadband corresponding to the sensor signal based on the corresponding measure of signal variability, intermittently, during the operation of the agricultural machine, the deadband identifying system comprising:
a signal characteristic capturing component configured to capture a set of discrete sensor signal values corresponding to the given sensor signal over a given period of time;
a deadband identifier that identifies the given deadband corresponding to the set of discrete sensor signal values based on the measure of signal variability, the deadband identifier comprising:
a transform component that transforms the set of discrete sensor signal values into a frequency domain;
a frequency component identifier that identifies frequency components to be filtered; and
a filter that filters out the identified frequency components from the given sensor signal to obtain a filtered sensor signal; and
a control system that controls the characteristic based on the filtered sensor signal.

9. The agricultural machine of claim 8 wherein the deadband identifying system comprises:
a deadband calculating component configured to calculate a standard deviation of the discrete sensor signal values as the measure of signal variability for the sensor signal.

10. The agricultural machine of claim 8 wherein the deadband identifying system comprises:
a deadband calculating component configured to calculate the measure of signal variability as at least one of: kurtosis, variance, skewness or range of the discrete sensor signal values.

11. The agricultural machine of claim 8 , wherein the controllable subsystem comprises one or more of the following:
a header;
a cutter;
a feeder house;
a feed accelerator;
a thresher;
a thresher rotor;
a separator;
a separator rotor;
a discharge beater;
an elevator;
an auger;
a spout;
a cleaning fan;
a chaffer;
a sieve;
a chopper;
a spreader;
an engine;
a wheel; or
a track.

12. The agricultural machine of claim 8 , wherein the controllable subsystem sensor comprises one or more of the following:
a ground speed sensor;
a GPS;
a dead reckoning system;
a LORAN system;
a strike sensor;
a fan speed sensor;
a flow sensor;
a machine state sensor;
a moisture sensor;
an orientation sensor;
a crop property sensor;
a feed rate sensor;
a clean grain sensor;
separator loss sensor; or
cleaning shoe loss sensor.

Assignees

• Deere & Co

Inventors

• French Jr William D

Classifications

• A01B69/00

  Steering of agricultural machines or implements; Guiding agricultural machines or implements on a desired track · CPC title

• G05B2219/41244

  Dead band, zone · CPC title

• G06Q50/02

  Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining · CPC title

• A01D41/127

  Control or measuring arrangements specially adapted for combines · CPC title

• G05B19/4155 Primary

  characterised by program execution, i.e. part program or machine function execution, e.g. selection of a program · CPC title