Weighing systems and methods for dynamic loads

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11533852-B2
Application number	US-201916676993-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2019
Priority date	Nov 7, 2019
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

Weighing systems and methods for dynamic loads are provided. A plurality of sensors are configured to provide force information based on a weight of a bin and a weight of a material in the bin. An IMU is coupled to the bin and configured to provide gyroscope information and accelerometer information based on orientation and movement of the bin respectively. A controller is communicatively coupled to the plurality of sensors and to the IMU. The controller is configured to receive the force information from the plurality of sensors and the gyroscope information and the accelerometer information from the IMU. The controller is configured to compensate the force information based on slope of the bin to provide slope-compensated force information, filter the slope-compensated force information using a Kalman filter to provide filtered force information, and estimate the weight of the material in the bin based on the filtered force information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for estimating weight of agricultural materials in a bin, comprising:
a plurality of load cells configured to provide force information as a function of a weight of the bin and a weight of the agricultural materials in the bin;
an inertial measurement unit (IMU) coupled to the bin and configured to provide gyroscope information and accelerometer information as a function of orientation and movement of the bin respectively; and
a controller configured to receive the force information from the plurality of load cells and the gyroscope information and the accelerometer information from the IMU, the controller configured to:
determine a pitch and a roll of the bin based on the gyroscope information and the accelerometer information;
adjust the force information based on the pitch and the roll to provide slope-compensated force information;
adjust the slope-compensated force information based on a zero-reading from the load cells obtained when the bin is substantially empty to obtain adjusted force information;
determine a maximum standard deviation of the gyroscope information and of the accelerometer information;
determine a setting of a Kalman filter based on the maximum standard deviation;
filter the adjusted force information using the Kalman filter to provide filtered force information; and
estimate the weight of the agricultural materials in the bin based on the filtered force information.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a display configured to receive the estimate of the weight of the agricultural materials in the bin and display the estimate of the weight.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the slope-compensated force information includes force information from each of the plurality of load cells, and wherein the adjusted force information provided to the Kalman filter includes a single adjusted force information value that is a sum of adjusted force information values from each of the plurality of load cells.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the force information provided from the plurality of load cells is a single value that is an average of force information values from each of the plurality of load cells.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is further configured to filter the pitch and the roll before adjusting the force information based on the pitch and the roll.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is further configured to pre-filter the force information to provide pre-filtered force information, and the pre-filtered force information is adjusted based on the pitch and the roll to provide the slope-compensated force information.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the maximum standard deviation is determined based on at least one of standard deviations from angular acceleration of yaw, pitch, and roll values from the gyroscope information and standard deviations of X, Y, and Z values from the accelerometer information.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the IMU and the controller share at least part of a common housing that is coupled to the bin or the IMU and controller are integrated on a same printed circuit board (PCB).

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of load cells and the IMU are communicatively coupled to the controller via wired communications.

10. A system for estimating weight of a material in a bin, comprising:
a plurality of sensors configured to provide force information based on a weight of the bin and a weight of the material in the bin;
an inertial measurement unit (IMU) coupled to the bin and configured to provide gyroscope information and accelerometer information based on orientation and movement of the bin respectively; and
a controller communicatively coupled to the plurality of sensors and to the IMU, the controller configured to receive the force information from the plurality of sensors and the gyroscope information and the accelerometer information from the IMU, the controller configured to:
compensate the force information based on slope of the bin to provide slope-compensated force information;
filter the slope-compensated force information using a Kalman filter to provide filtered force information, the Kalman filter using a setting that is determined based on a maximum standard deviation of the gyroscope information and the accelerometer information; and
estimate the weight of the material in the bin based on the filtered force information.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the controller is further configured to adjust the slope-compensated force information based on a zero-reading from the plurality of sensors obtained when the bin is substantially empty, the slope-compensated force information adjusted prior to filtering the slope-compensated force information.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein the controller is further configured to determine the maximum standard deviation of the gyroscope information and of the accelerometer information.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the slope-compensated force information includes force information from each of the plurality of sensors, and wherein the slope-compensated force information provided to the Kalman filter includes a single slope-compensated force information value that is a sum of slope-compensated force information values from each of the plurality of sensors.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein each of the plurality of sensors include one or more load cells.

15. The system of claim 10 further comprising a display, the controller configured to communicate with the display via wireless communications, and wherein the display is configured to receive the estimate of the weight of the material in the bin from the controller and display the estimate of the weight.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein the controller is further configured to determine the slope of the bin based on the gyroscope information and the accelerometer information.

17. The system of claim 10 wherein the controller is further configured to pre-filter the force information to provide pre-filtered force information, and the pre-filtered force information is adjusted based on the slope to provide the slope-compensated force information.

18. A method for estimating weight of agricultural materials in a bin, the method comprising:
determining a pitch and a roll of the bin based on gyroscope information and accelerometer information from an inertial measurement unit (IMU), wherein the IMU is coupled to the bin and configured to provide the gyroscope information and the accelerometer information as a function of orientation and movement of the bin respectively;
adjusting force information from a plurality of load cells based on the pitch and the roll to provide slope-compensated force information, wherein the plurality of load cells are configured to provide force information as a function of a weight of the bin and a weight of the agricultural materials in the bin;
determining a setting of a Kalman filter based on a maximum standard deviation of the gyroscope information and the accelerometer information;
filtering the slope-compensated force information using the Kalman filter to provide filtered force information; and
estimating the weight of the agricultural materials in the bin based on the filtered force information.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor cause a controller to perform the method claim 18 .

20. A controller configured to perform the method of claim 18 .

Assignees

• Trimble Inc

Inventors

• Müller Christian
• Tewes Philipp

Classifications

• G01N5/00

  Analysing materials by weighing, e.g. weighing small particles separated from a gas or liquid (G01N9/00 takes precedence {; weighing per se G01G}) · CPC title

• A01D90/02 Primary

  Loading means · CPC title

• B60P3/00

  Vehicles adapted to transport, to carry or to comprise special loads or objects (ambulances or other vehicles with special provisions for transporting patients or disabled persons, or their personal conveyances A61G3/00; hearses A61G21/00; fire-fighting land vehicles A62C27/00; refuse-collecting vehicles B65F3/00, B65F7/00; snow-removing vehicles E01H; armoured or armed vehicles F41H7/00; self-propelled mine-clearing vehicles F41H11/16) · CPC title

• G01G19/021 Primary

  having electrical weight-sensitive devices (G01G19/04 - G01G19/07 take precedence) · CPC title