Yield measurement and base cutter height control systems for a harvester

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10371561-B2
Application number	US-201414527152-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2014
Priority date	Nov 1, 2013
Publication date	Aug 6, 2019
Grant date	Aug 6, 2019

Abstract

A system is provided that can include a 3D sensor. The 3D sensor can be configured to detect an area of an elevator on a harvester. The 3D sensor can further be configured to transmit a first signal associated with the area. The system can also include a processing device in communication with the 3D sensor. The system can further include a memory device in which instructions executable by the processing device are stored for causing the processing device to receive the first signal and determine a volume of a material on the elevator based on the first signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a stereo-camera system configured to detect an area of an elevator on a harvester and to transmit images associated with the area, the elevator having an elevator back plate with an irregular pattern of apertures configured to reduce volume determination errors;
a processing device in communication with the stereo-camera system; and
a memory device in which instructions executable by the processing device are stored for causing the processing device to:
receive the images;
generate a three-dimensional (3D) profile of the area at least in part by analyzing the images using triangulation, the 3D profile including a grid of squares, each square in the grid of squares having a predefined area and a corresponding height relative to a plane of the elevator;
filtering out, from the 3D profile, data points corresponding to a paddle on the elevator to produce a filtered 3D profile; and
determine a volume of a material on the elevator based on the filtered 3D profile.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor configured to detect a parameter of the harvester and transmit a signal associated with the parameter to the processing device, wherein the memory device further comprises instructions executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
receive the signal; and
generate a three-dimensional (3D) map based on the signal;
determine the volume of the material based on the 3D map; and
determine a yield of the material based on the volume of the material and the signal.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the parameter comprises a GPS location, speed, direction, or crop processing engagement.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the memory device further comprises instructions executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
generate a corrected GPS location by modifying a GPS location associated with the yield by a distance;
spatially filter the yield to generate a filtered yield value; and
generate a yield map based on the filtered yield value and the corrected GPS location.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory device further comprises instructions executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
determine a composition of the material by analyzing a color and a texture of the material in the images, wherein the composition comprises a first percentage of the material that is attributable to a target material and a second percentage of the material that is attributable to an extraneous material; and
apply a scaling factor to the volume of the material based on the composition to determine a calibrated volume.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the memory device further comprises instructions executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
change a speed of a fan associated with a primary extractor or a secondary extractor based on the composition.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the memory device further comprises instructions executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
operate the stereo-camera system when the elevator does not include the material;
receive the images from the stereo-camera system;
determine a baseline volume based on the images; and
modify the calibrated volume based on the baseline volume.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a lighting system that includes a sensor configured to detect an amount of ambient light and at least one light positioned to illuminate the area of the elevator, wherein the memory device further includes instructions that are executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to operate the at least one light to illuminate the area of the elevator based on the detected amount of ambient light.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the memory device further includes instructions that are executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to determine the composition of the material by:
determining that a first portion of an image corresponds to the elevator and a second portion of the image corresponds to the material based on a first color of the elevator being different from a second color of the material.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a paddle sensor configured to detect a position of a paddle on the elevator and transmit a signal to the processing device, wherein the memory device further comprises instructions executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
receive the signal;
determine a speed of the elevator based on the signal; and
operate the stereo-camera system based on the signal.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory device further comprises instructions executable by the processing device for causing the processing device to:
determine a position of a paddle on the elevator based on the images from the stereo-camera system by identifying the paddle in an image from the stereo-camera system; and
determine a speed of the elevator based on the position of the paddle.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein triangulation involves correlating a first set of pixels in a first image from a first camera in the stereo-camera system to a second set of pixels in a second image from a second camera in the stereo-camera system.

13. A method comprising:
receiving, by a processing device, images from a stereo-camera system, the images being of an area of an elevator of a harvester, the elevator having an elevator back plate with an irregular pattern of apertures configured to reduce volume determination errors;
generating, by the processing device, a three-dimensional (3D) profile of the area of the elevator at least in part by analyzing the images using triangulation, the 3D profile including a grid of squares, each square in the grid of squares having a predefined area and a corresponding height relative to a plane of the elevator;
filtering out, by the processing device and from the 3D profile, data points corresponding to a paddle on the elevator to produce a filtered 3D profile; and
determining, by the processing device, a volume of a material on the elevator based on the filtered 3D profile.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
calibrating the 3D profile based on calibration data, wherein the calibration data determined using other images from the stereo-camera system generated prior to the material being positioned in the elevator, and wherein the calibration data accounts for (i) a position of a back plate of the elevator, (ii) a deformation in the back plate of the elevator, and (iii) a characteristic of a paddle on the elevator.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
determining a speed of the elevator; and
multiplying the speed of the elevator by the volume to determine a total volume of the material on the elevator.

16. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
determining a composition of the volume of the material on the elevator by:
dividing the images into segmented regions based on a visual characteristic of the material in the elevator;
generating corrected segmented-regions by correcting the segmented regions for at least one of illumination, scale, or perspective;
performing feature extraction on the corrected segmented-regions to determine one or more features in the corrected segmented-regions; and
classifying the one or more features as trash or a target material to determine the composition of the material on the elevator; and

modifying the volume of the material on the eleva

Assignees

• Univ Iowa State Res Found Inc
• Deere & Co
• Univ Carnegie Mellon

Inventors

• Darr Matthew J
• Corbett Daniel Joseph
• Herman Herman
• Vallespi-Gonzalez Carlos
• Dugas Bryan E
• Badino Hernan

Classifications

• G01F22/00

  Methods or apparatus for measuring volume of fluids or fluent solid material, not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• G01F25/0084 Primary

  for measuring volume · CPC title