Upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor system for whole-stem reed harvesting, method, and harvester

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12396396-B1
Application number	US-202318839026-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 24, 2023
Priority date	Nov 1, 2023
Publication date	Aug 26, 2025
Grant date	Aug 26, 2025

Abstract

An upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor system for whole-stem reed harvesting includes a conveyor device, a height adjustment mechanism, and a control unit. A preharvest detection unit is configured to detect height information of reeds in a preharvest region, and transmit the height information to the control unit. A position sensor is configured to detect a current height of the conveyor device, and transmit the current height to the control unit. A lifting device is connected to the conveyor device; and the control unit is configured to calculate an average height of the reeds in the preharvest region and a height of center of gravity of the reeds, calculate a height difference between the height of the center of gravity of the reeds and the current height of the conveyor device, and adjust a position of the conveyor device to correspond to the center of gravity of the reeds in the preharvest region.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor system for whole-stem reed harvesting, comprising an upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device, a height adjustment mechanism, and a control unit, wherein
the height adjustment mechanism comprises a preharvest detection unit, a position sensor, and a lifting device; the preharvest detection unit is configured to detect height information of reeds in a preharvest region, and transmit the height information to the control unit; the position sensor is configured to detect a current height of the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device, and transmit the current height to the control unit; and the lifting device is connected to the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device; and
the control unit is connected to the preharvest detection unit and the lifting device; the control unit is configured to calculate an average height of the reeds in the preharvest region according to the height information detected by the preharvest detection unit for the reeds in the preharvest region, calculate a height of a center of gravity of the reeds, calculate a height difference between the height of the center of gravity of the reeds and the current height of the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device, and control, according to the height difference, the lifting device to adjust a position of the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device to correspond to the center of gravity of the reeds in the preharvest region,
the lifting device comprises a speed reduction motor, a coupled twin winch, a first pulley set, a second pulley set, a support, and a sleeve;
the support is provided at the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device; the support is connected to a girder of a header; and the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device is connected to a vertical beam of the support through the sleeve;
the speed reduction motor and the coupled twin winch are provided on a top of the support; and the first pulley set is provided at two sides of an upper portion of the support, and connected to an upper portion of the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device; and
the second pulley set is provided at two sides of a lower portion of the support, and connected to a lower portion of the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device; a wire rope of the first pulley set and a wire rope of the second pulley set are connected to the coupled twin winch; and the coupled twin winch driven by the speed reduction motor drives the wire rope of the first pulley set and the wire rope of the second pulley set to realize retraction and extension of the wire rope of the first pulley set and the wire rope of the second pulley set, thereby driving the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device to move up and down along the vertical beam of the support.

2. The upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor system for whole-stem reed harvesting according to claim 1 , wherein the preharvest detection unit comprises a laser radar; and
the laser radar is configured to scan to-be-harvested reeds in front of the header at a sampling interval T, acquire point cloud data for reflection points of the to-be-harvested reeds in a polar coordinate of the laser radar, and transmit the point cloud data to the control unit; and the control unit is configured to process the point cloud data to obtain a point cloud in a square region specified in front of the header, uniformly segment the square region into a plurality of sub-regions that are equal, calculate a maximum of a point cloud y coordinate in each of the plurality of sub-regions, take the maximum y ijmax as an average height of reeds in each of the plurality of sub-regions, and calculate an average y avg in the square region according to the y ijmax representing the average height of the reeds in each of the plurality of sub-regions, wherein the average y avg represents the average height of the reeds in the preharvest region,
the height of the center of gravity of the reeds is an actual length

2
3

⁢

h
2

 of the reeds, wherein h 2 =y ave −h 1 , and

y
grav

=

2
3

⁢

(

h
avg

-

h
1

)

,

wherein, y grav represents the height of the center of gravity of the reeds, and h 1 represents a height detected by a knife height sensor for a knife above a ground.

3. The upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor system for whole-stem reed harvesting according to claim 1 , wherein the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor device comprises two symmetric upstanding longitudinal conveyor mechanisms; and the two symmetric upstanding longitudinal conveyor mechanisms clamp upstanding reeds when longitudinally conveying the reeds;
the two symmetric upstanding longitudinal conveyor mechanisms each comprise an upstanding conveyor unit and the sleeve;
the upstanding conveyor unit comprises a traction roller, a driven roller, a clamping conveyor chain, an upper beam, and a lower beam;
the upper beam is located above the lower beam; the traction roller comprises one end connected to one end of the upper beam, and another end connected to one end of the lower beam; the driven roller comprises one end connected to another end of the upper beam, and another end connected to another end of the lower beam; and the clamping conveyor chain surrounds the traction roller and the driven roller; and
the upper beam and the lower beam are connected to the sleeve; the sleeve is provided on the vertical beam of the support; and the sleeve is slidable up and down along the vertical beam of the support, thereby driving the upstanding conveyor unit to move up and down.

4. The upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor system for whole-stem reed harvesting according to claim 1 , wherein the speed reduction motor is provided with an electromagnetic brake system.

5. A harvester, comprising the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor system for whole-stem reed harvesting according to claim 1 .

6. A control method of the upstanding clamping longitudinal conveyor system for whole-stem reed harvesting according to claim 1 , comprising following steps:
setting a coordinate of the laser radar of the preharvest detection unit, and scanning, by a laser radar, the to-be-harvested reeds in front of the header, acquiring point cloud data for reflection points of the reeds at the laser radar, and transmitting the point cloud data to the control unit; and
performing, by the control unit, coordinate transformation on the point cloud data, filtering the point cloud data, uniformly segmenting the point cloud data in the preharvest region into a plurality of sub-regions, acquiring a maximum y ijmax of a point cloud y coordinate in each of the plurality of sub-regions, calculating the average height y avg for the reeds in the preharvest region, calculating the height of the ce

Assignees

• Univ Jiangsu

Inventors

• Li Yaoming
• Ji Binbin
• Ji Kuizhou
• Liu Yanbin
• Liang Zhenwei
• Du Tuo

Classifications

• A01D69/02

  electric · CPC title

• G01S17/42

  Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates (indirect measurement G01S17/46) · CPC title

• A01D45/065 Primary

  of fibrous plants other than flax, e.g. ramie, sisal, hemp, jute, Spanish grass, raffia · CPC title

• G01S7/4808

  Evaluating distance, position or velocity data · CPC title

• A01D61/04

  Chains · CPC title