Speed control of a harvester

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11091034-B2
Application number	US-201715820616-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 22, 2017
Priority date	Nov 23, 2016
Publication date	Aug 17, 2021
Grant date	Aug 17, 2021

Abstract

An arrangement for control of the drive speed of a harvester comprises an internal control loop for control of the drive speed of the harvester, to which can be sent a set value and an actual value of a throughput-dependent parameter, and also an external control loop to make available the set value of the throughput-dependent parameter for the internal control loop, to which set and actual values regarding the power output of a drive of the harvester can be sent as input parameters.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system to control a speed of a harvester, the system comprising:
an engine configured to provide an output power to be consumed by one or more drive trains of the harvester and by at least one additional power consuming component of the harvester; and
a controller configured to control the speed of the harvester, the controller configured to:
generate, with a first control loop having a first cycle time duration, a crop throughput-dependent set value based on a difference between an output power set value and an output power actual value, the output power set value indicating a desired output power of the engine, the output power actual value indicating an output power of the engine,
provide the crop throughput-dependent set value and a throughput-dependent actual value to a second control loop that is internal to the first control loop, the second control loop having a second cycle time duration shorter than the first cycle time duration,
adjust, using the second control loop, the speed of the harvester when the crop throughput-dependent set value satisfies a threshold, wherein the second control loop is configured to control the speed of the harvester through a third control loop having a third cycle time duration shorter than the second cycle time duration, the third control loop configured to receive a harvester traveling speed set value from the second control loop.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second control loop is configured to obtain a pressure value as the crop throughput-dependent actual value corresponding to a pressure actuator configured to adjust a driven pulley wheel associated with a crop processing unit driven by the one or more drive trains of the harvester so that the crop throughout-dependent actual value approaches the crop throughput-dependent set value.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one additional power consuming component is a hydrostatic transmission.

4. The system of claim 1 , further including a motor control unit, the motor control unit configured to control operation of the engine independent of the output power set value.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the output power set value is input by an operator via an operator interface in operable communication with the controller.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second control loop is configured to provide the third control loop with a harvester traveling speed actual value, the third control loop configured to control a traveling speed actuator driven by the one or more drive trains of the harvester associated with a traveling speed of the harvester so that the harvester traveling speed actual value approaches the harvester traveling speed set value.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein either one or both of the second control loop and the third control loop obtain an external correcting variable configured to reduce the traveling speed of the harvester.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the external correcting variable reduces the traveling speed of the harvester until the threshold is no longer satisfied.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is implemented in or on the harvester.

10. A harvester comprising:
an engine; and
a speed controller configured to control a speed of the harvester, the speed controller configured to:
generate, with a first control loop having a first cycle time duration, a crop throughput-dependent set value based on a difference between an engine output power set value and an engine output power actual value, the engine output power set value indicating a desired output power of the engine, the engine output power actual value indicating an output power of the engine,
provide the crop throughput-dependent set value and a throughput-dependent actual value to a second control loop that is internal to the first control loop, the second control loop having a second cycle time duration shorter than the first cycle time duration, and
adjust, using the second control loop, the speed of the harvester when the crop throughput-dependent set value satisfies a threshold, wherein the second control loop controls the speed of the harvester through a third control loop having a third cycle time duration shorter than the second cycle time duration, the third control loop receiving a harvester traveling speed set value from the second control loop.

11. A method for controlling a speed of a harvester, the method comprising:
generating, with a first control loop having a first cycle time duration, a crop throughput-dependent set value based on a difference between an output power set value and an output power actual value, the output power set value indicating a desired output power of an engine of the harvester, the output power actual value indicating an output power of the engine of the harvester;
providing the crop throughput-dependent set value and a throughput-dependent actual value to a second control loop that is internal to the first control loop, the second control loop having a second cycle time duration shorter than the first cycle time duration; and
adjusting, using the second control loop, the speed of the harvester when the crop throughput-dependent set value satisfies a threshold, wherein the second control loop controls the speed of the harvester through a third control loop having a third cycle time duration shorter than the second cycle time duration, the third control loop receiving a harvester traveling speed set value from the second control loop.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the output power set value is equal to or less than a maximum available engine output power.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the crop throughput-dependent set value is a signal relating to one of either a drive torque, a hydraulic pressure, or a mass grain flow sensor.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the second control loop directly controls the speed of the engine.

15. The method of claim 11 , further including sending an external variable to either one or both of the second control loop and the third control loop, the external variable to reduce the speed of the engine until the crop throughout-dependent set value no longer satisfies the threshold.

16. A method for controlling a speed of a harvester, the method comprising:
generating, with a first control loop having a first cycle time duration, a crop throughput-dependent set value based on a difference between an output power set value and an output power actual value, the output power set value indicating a desired output power of an engine of the harvester, the output power actual value indicating an output power of the engine of the harvester;
providing the crop throughput-dependent set value and a throughput-dependent actual value to a second control loop having a second cycle time duration shorter than the first cycle time duration; and
adjusting, using the second control loop, the speed of the harvester when the crop throughput-dependent set value satisfies a threshold, wherein the second control loop controls the speed of the harvester through a third control loop having a third cycle time duration shorter than the second cycle time duration, the third control loop receiving a harvester traveling speed set value from the second control loop.

Assignees

• Deere & Co

Inventors

• Muench Philipp

Classifications

• A01D41/1274 Primary

  for drives · CPC title

• A01D69/03

  fluid · CPC title

• B60K31/00 Primary

  Vehicle fittings, acting on a single sub-unit only, for automatically controlling vehicle speed, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator · CPC title