Agricultural vehicle having reconfigurable controls

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10779457-B2
Application number	US-201715726653-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2017
Priority date	Oct 7, 2016
Publication date	Sep 22, 2020
Grant date	Sep 22, 2020

Abstract

An agricultural tractor having an auxiliary control station located outside of the tractor cab. The auxiliary control station is used for the actuation of tractor components, e.g. hydraulic cylinders, when an operator is outside of the cab. The auxiliary control station has a user interface which allows the external controls of the auxiliary control station to be reassigned to operate different actuatable elements of the tractor, thereby providing for increased ease-of-use of the tractor when an operator is outside of the cab.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An agricultural tractor, comprising:
a cab having an operator station;
a plurality of actuatable elements; and
an auxiliary control station external of the cab having:
at least one external control for operation of the actuatable elements,
a user interface to allow for re-configuration of the at least one external control, wherein the user interface comprises at least one button operable to cycle through different configurations of the at least one external control of the auxiliary control station and wherein the different configurations of the at least one external control are user-defined from the operator station in the cab.

2. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the actuatable elements comprise at least one of the following: electric motors, hydraulic valves, and hydraulic cylinders.

3. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary control station comprises a display screen to indicate the configuration of the at least one external control.

4. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the at least one external control comprises changeable indicators which indicate the current configuration of the at least one external control.

5. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the at least one external control comprises a display screen incorporated into the external control, wherein the screen displays an indication of the actuatable element currently operated by each of the at least one external controls.

6. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the user interface of the auxiliary control station comprises a touch screen display to allow re-configuration of the at least one external control at the auxiliary control station.

7. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the configuration of the at least one external control is lockable from the operator station in the cab.

8. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary control station is positioned at a rear portion of the tractor, for control of one or more rear linkage elements.

9. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary control station is positioned at a front portion of the tractor, for control of one or more front linkage elements.

10. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary control station comprises a cover or shield to protect the auxiliary control station when not in use.

11. The agricultural tractor of claim 1 , wherein the tractor further comprises a controller arranged to re-configure the at least one external control of the auxiliary control station to actuate different elements of the plurality of actuatable elements.

Assignees

• Agco Int Gmbh

Inventors

• Barzen Alexander

Classifications

• B60K35/22

  Display screens · CPC title

• B60K35/80

  Arrangements for controlling instruments · CPC title

• B60K35/60 Primary

  Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles (arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10) · CPC title

• B60R2011/0288

  Apparatus made of several modules independently mounted · CPC title

• B62D49/0692

  characterised by the particular arrangement of control devices, e.g. having more than one control stand, operable from vehicle extension (control devices or systems characterised by mechanical features only) · CPC title