Delay management for geospatial crop yield mapping

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11259462-B2
Application number	US-201916574921-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2019
Priority date	Sep 18, 2019
Publication date	Mar 1, 2022
Grant date	Mar 1, 2022

Abstract

Systems and methods for geospatial yield mapping by managing and modeling a system-based delay between crop location and crop sensing. The system stores a plurality of yield rate values indicative of crop yield detected by a sensor and a plurality of geospatial location values as time sequence data sets. The system then maps a yield rate value to a geospatial location value by determining an offset indicative of a total delay time from when the crop is cut from the field to when the crop is detected by the yield sensor. In some implementations, the delay value is determined as an integer multiple of a defined sampling frequency and is determined as a sum of a plurality of delay component values each indicative of a portion of the total delay time associated with a different one of a plurality of component systems of the crop harvester.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of correcting a correlation between a geospatial location of a crop harvester and a determined yield rate value, the method comprising:
determining, by an electronic processor, a sequence of delay values, wherein each delay value of the sequence of delay values is indicative of a total time delay from a time that a crop is cut from a field as a harvester moves across the field to a time that the crop reaches the field of view of a yield monitoring sensor, wherein determining each delay value of the sequence of delay values includes
determining one or more static delay components indicative of portions of the total time delay that are constant or that can be determined based on instantaneous measured outputs of one or more sensors,
determining one or more dynamic delay components indicative of portions of the total time delay that are dependent on historical operating conditions of one or more components of the harvester, wherein determining the one or more dynamic delay components includes determining the one or more dynamic delay components based at least in part on the historical operating conditions of the one or more components of the harvester, and
determining the total delay time based at least in part on the one or more determined static delay components and the one or more determined dynamic delay components; and

correlating, based on a determined delay value of the sequence of determined delay values, a determined crop yield value from a first stored data set indicative of a plurality of determined crop yield values to a determined geospatial location from a second stored data set indicative of a plurality of determined geospatial locations.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the total delay time includes determining the total delay time as an integer multiple of a sampling frequency, and wherein correlating the determined crop yield value to the determined geospatial location includes
selecting a first geospatial location from the first data set using a first pointer offset defined based on a first system time, wherein the first data set includes a sequential data set of geospatial locations each determined at the sampling frequency, and
selecting a first crop yield value from the second data set to correlate to the first geospatial location using a second pointer offset defined based on the first system time and the integer multiple of the total delay time, wherein the second data set includes a sequential data set of crop yield values each determined at the sampling frequency.

3. A method of correcting a correlation between a geospatial location of a crop harvester and a determined yield rate value, wherein the crop harvester includes
a chopper positioned at a front end of the sugar cane harvester configured to cut a sugar cane crop as the sugar cane harvester moves across a field and to chop the cut sugar cane crop,
a buffer basket configured to receive the chopped sugar cane crop from the chopper, and
an elevator configured to convey the chopped sugar cane crop from the buffer basket to a collection vessel, wherein the yield monitoring sensor is configured to generate an output indicative of an amount of chopped crop conveyed on the elevator,
the method comprising:
determining, by an electronic processor, a sequence of delay values, wherein each delay value of the sequence of delay values is indicative of a total time delay from a time that a crop is cut from a field as a harvester moves across the field to a time that the crop reaches the field of view of a yield monitoring sensor, wherein determining each delay value of the sequence of delay values includes
determining one or more static delay components indicative of portions of the total time delay that are constant or that can be determined based on instantaneous measured outputs of one or more sensors,
determining one or more dynamic delay components indicative of portions of the total time delay that are dependent on historical operating conditions of one or more components of the harvester, and
determining the total delay time based at least in part on the one or more determined static delay components and the one or more determined dynamic delay components; and

correlating, based on a determined delay value of the sequence of determined delay values, a determined crop yield value from a first stored data set indicative of a plurality of determined crop yield values to a determined geospatial location from a second stored data set indicative of a plurality of determined geospatial locations,
wherein determining the one or more static delay components includes determining a chopper delay indicative of a time delay from the time that the crop is cut to a time that the crop reaches the buffer basket,
wherein determining the one or more dynamic delay components includes determining a buffer basket delay indicative of a time delay from the time that the crop reaches the buffer basket to a time that the crop is removed from the buffer basket by the elevator, and
wherein determining the buffer basket delay includes determining a buffer basket delay based at least in part on a current operating state of the elevator and a previous operating state of the elevator.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the chopper delay includes determining the chopper delay based at least in part on a sensed ground speed of the harvester.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining an estimated mass flow of crop based at least in part on a sensed ground speed of the harvester, a sensed chopper pressure, and a sensed base cutter pressure, wherein the sensed base cutter pressure is indicative of a pressure resistance of the chopper while cutting the crop in the field, wherein the sensed chopper pressure is indicative of a pressure resistance of the chopper while chopping the cut crop, and
wherein determining the buffer basket delay includes determining the buffer basket delay based at least in part on the estimated mass flow, the current operating state of the elevator, and a previous operating state of the elevator.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the one or more dynamic delay components further includes determining an elevator delay indicative of a time delay from the time that the crop is removed from the buffer basket by the elevator to a time that the crop reaches the field of view of the yield monitoring sensor, and
wherein determining the elevator delay includes determining the elevator delay based at least in part on a current operating speed of the elevator and a previous operating state of the elevator.

7. A geospatial yield mapping system for a sugar cane harvester, the sugar cane harvester including
a chopper positioned at a front end of the sugar cane harvester configured to cut a sugar cane crop as the sugar cane harvester moves across a field and to chop the cut sugar cane crop,
a buffer basket configured to receive the chopped sugar cane crop from the chopper, and
an elevator configured to convey the chopped sugar cane crop from the buffer basket to a collection vessel,
the geospatial yield mapping system comprising:
a positioning system configured to determine a geospatial location of the sugar cane harvester;
a yield monitoring sensor configured to generate an output indicative of an amount of chopped sugar cane crop conveyed on the elevator; and
an electronic controller configured to:
determine a geospatial location of the sugar cane harvester and store to a memory a first data set defining a plurality of determined geospatial locations,
determine a sugar cane output value based on the output of the yield monitoring sensor and store to the memory a second data set defining a plurality of determined sugar c

Assignees

• Deere & Co

Inventors

• Blank Sebastian

Classifications

• A01D57/20

  with conveyor belts · CPC title

• G01F1/30

  for fluent solid material · CPC title

• A01D43/0631

  Control devices specially adapted therefor · CPC title

• G06Q50/02 Primary

  Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining · CPC title

• H04M3/42348

  Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target · CPC title