Surfacing of subsystem power consumption on an agricultural machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017083035-A1
Application number	US-201514862490-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 23, 2015
Priority date	Sep 23, 2015
Publication date	Mar 23, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

Power consumption is sensed for individual subsystems of an agricultural machine. Visual indicia are generated, that are indicative of the sensed power consumption, for each individual subsystem. A user interface mechanism is controlled to display the visual indicia, indicating power consumption of the individual subsystems on the harvesting machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An agricultural machine, comprising:
a plurality of subsystems, each performing a function of the agricultural machine; a plurality of power detectors, each power detector detecting a variable indicative of power consumed on a given subsystem, of the plurality of subsystems, and generating a corresponding power consumption signal indicative of the detected variable; and a power consumption surfacing system that receives the power consumption signals from the plurality of power detectors and generates a visualization indicative of the power consumed by each of the plurality of subsystems.

2 . The agricultural machine of claim 1 wherein the power consumption surfacing system comprises:
a consumption analysis component that identifies power consumption of each of the plurality of subsystems based on the power consumption signals.

3 . The agricultural machine of claim 2 wherein the power consumption surfacing system comprises:
a visualization generator configured to generate the visualization to show a metric value corresponding to each subsystem, indicative of the power being consumed by the corresponding subsystem.

4 . The agricultural system of claim 3 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with a machine display portion displaying a depiction of the agricultural machine and a power consumption display portion that displays the power being consumed by each subsystem.

5 . The agricultural machine of claim 4 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with the machine display portion showing each of the plurality of subsystems on the depiction of the agricultural machine.

6 . The agricultural machine of claim 5 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with visual indicia correlating the subsystems on the depiction of the agricultural machine to the metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by the subsystems.

7 . The agricultural machine of claim 6 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with the visual indicia color coding the subsystems on the depiction of the agricultural machine with the metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by the subsystems.

8 . The agricultural machine of claim 5 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with the power consumption display portion displaying the power being consumed by each of the subsystems on a chart.

9 . The agricultural machine of claim 5 wherein the visualization generator generates the visualization with the power consumption display portion displaying the power being consumed by each of the subsystems as alphanumeric values.

10 . The agricultural machine of claim 1 wherein at least a given one of the subsystems has a plurality of power consuming components and wherein the power consumption surfacing system generates the visualization to show power being consumed by the individual power consuming components.

11 . The agricultural machine of claim 1 wherein the agricultural machine comprises a combine and wherein the subsystems comprise one or more of a threshing subsystem, a separating subsystem, a cleaning subsystem, a residue processing subsystem, a propulsion subsystem, a front end equipment subsystem, and a material handling subsystem.

12 . A method of controlling an agricultural machine, comprising:
detecting a variable indicative of power consumed on a given subsystem, of a plurality of subsystems that each perform a function on the agricultural machine; generating a corresponding power consumption signal indicative of the detected variable; and surfacing a visualization indicative of the power consumed by each of the plurality of subsystems, based on the corresponding power consumption signals.

13 . The method of claim 12 wherein surfacing comprises:
identifying power being consumed by of each of the plurality of subsystems based on the power consumption signals; and
generating the visualization to show a metric value corresponding to each subsystem, indicative of the power being consumed by the corresponding subsystem.

14 . The method of claim 13 wherein generating the visualization comprises:
generating the visualization with a machine display portion displaying a depiction of the agricultural machine and a power consumption display portion that displays the power being consumed by each subsystem.

15 . The method of claim 14 wherein generating the visualization comprises:
generating the visualization with the machine display portion showing each of the plurality of subsystems on the depiction of the agricultural machine and with visual indicia correlating the subsystems on the depiction of the agricultural machine to the metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by the subsystems.

16 . The method of claim 12 wherein at least a given one of the subsystems has a plurality of power consuming components and wherein surfacing the visualization comprises:
surfacing the visualization to show power being consumed by the individual power consuming components of the at least one subsystem.

17 . The method of claim 12 wherein the agricultural machine comprises a combine and wherein surfacing the visualization comprises:
surfacing the visualization to show power being consumed by a plurality of a threshing subsystem, a separating subsystem, a cleaning subsystem, a residue processing subsystem, a propulsion subsystem, a front end equipment subsystem, or a material handling subsystem.

18 . The method of claim 15 wherein generating the visualization comprises:
generating the visualization with the visual indicia color coding the subsystems on the depiction of the agricultural machine with the metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by the subsystems.

19 . An agricultural machine, comprising:
a plurality of subsystems, each performing a function of the agricultural machine; a plurality of power detectors, each power detector detecting a variable indicative of power consumed on a given subsystem, of the plurality of subsystems, and generating a corresponding power consumption signal indicative of the detected variable; a consumption analysis component that identifies power consumption of each of the plurality of subsystems based on the power consumption signals; and a power consumption surfacing system that receives the identified power consumption and generates a visualization indicative of the power consumed by each of the plurality of subsystems.

20 . The agricultural machine of claim 19 wherein the power consumption surfacing system comprises:
a visualization generator configured to generate the visualization with a machine display portion displaying a depiction of the agricultural machine and a power consumption display portion that displays the power being consumed by each subsystem, the visualization including visual indicia correlating the subsystems on the depiction of the agricultural machine to metric values on the power consumption display portion indicative of the power being consumed by the subsystems.

Assignees

• Deere & Co

Inventors

• French Jr William D

Classifications

• A01B79/005

  Precision agriculture · CPC title

• G05F1/66 Primary

  Regulating electric power · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• A01D41/127

  Control or measuring arrangements specially adapted for combines · CPC title