Sensing and control of liquid application using an agricultural machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020037519-A1
Application number	US-201816054182-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 3, 2018
Priority date	Aug 3, 2018
Publication date	Feb 6, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

An agricultural machine applies liquid material to a field. Valve control signals control valves to apply the liquid material. Row pressure on the agricultural machine is sensed to identify when the valve is opened to apply the liquid material. The valve control signals are generated, based on the row pressure, to control the valves to apply the liquid material at a desired location in the field, relative to plant locations in the field.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An agricultural machine, comprising:
a liquid reservoir that stores liquid to be applied to a field over which the agricultural machine is traveling; a supply line that defines a supply conduit; a plurality of valves disposed along the supply line, each valve having an inlet end and an outlet end and being controlled to move between an open position and a closed position by a pulsed control signal; a pump system that pumps the liquid from the liquid reservoir along the supply line to the inlet ends of the valves; a plurality of nozzles, at least one nozzle corresponding to each valve so that when the corresponding valve is open, the liquid flows through the valve to the corresponding nozzle; a plurality of row pressure sensors each sensing pressure at the outlet end of one of the plurality of valves and generating a corresponding row pressure signal indicative of the sensed pressure; pulse characteristic sensing logic that receives the row pressure signal from each row pressure sensor and identifies a pulse characteristic indicative of a liquid pulse provided by the corresponding valve in the open position and generates a valve pulse characteristic signal indicative of the pulse characteristic; and a pulsed valve control signal generator that generates the pulsed control signal based on the valve pulse characteristic signal.

2 . The agricultural machine of claim 1 and further comprising:
time delay logic configured to receive the pulsed control signal and the valve pulse characteristic signal and identify an open time delay between the pulsed control signal generating a valve open signal controlling the valve to open and the valve pulse characteristic signal indicating that the valve is in the open position.

3 . The agricultural machine of claim 2 wherein the time delay logic is configured to receive the pulsed control signal and the valve pulse characteristic signal and identify a close time delay between the pulsed control signal generating a valve close signal controlling the valve to close and the valve pulse characteristic signal indicating that the valve is in the closed position.

4 . The agricultural machine of claim 3 and further comprising:
seed/chemical correlation logic configured to identify plant location in the field and control timing of the pulsed control signal based on the identified plant location.

5 . The agricultural machine of claim 4 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic comprises:
a valve control signal generator configured to generate a pulse control signal to control a timing characteristic of the pulsed control signal based on the plant locations in the field over which the agricultural machine is traveling, the open time delay and the close time delay.

6 . The agricultural machine of claim 4 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic comprises:
a pulse frequency controller configured to generate a pulse frequency control signal to control a frequency of the pulsed control signal based on the plant locations in the field over which the agricultural machine is traveling, the open time delay and the close time delay.

7 . The agricultural machine of claim 4 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic comprises:
a pulse duration controller configured to generate a pulse duration control signal to control a pulse duration of the pulsed control signal based on the plant locations in the field over which the agricultural machine is traveling, the open time delay and the close time delay.

8 . The agricultural machine of claim 5 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic is configured to correlate the pulsed control signal with the plant locations to apply the liquid material between the plant locations.

9 . The agricultural machine of claim 5 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic is configured to synchronize the pulsed control signal with the plant locations to apply the liquid material at the plant locations.

10 . The agricultural machine of claim 9 and further comprising:
valve row flowrate identifier logic configured to identify a valve row flowrate for each valve based on a valve orifice size and the row pressure signal from the corresponding row pressure sensor.

11 . The agricultural machine of claim 10 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic is configured to synchronize the pulsed control signal with the plant locations to apply a desired amount of the liquid material based on the valve flow rate.

12 . The agricultural machine of claim 10 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic is configured to generate a pump control signal to control liquid pressure based on a travel speed of the agricultural machine to apply a desired amount of the liquid material.

13 . The agricultural machine of claim 1 and further comprising:
a supply line pressure sensor configured to identify pressure in the supply conduit and generate a supply line pressure signal indicative of the sensed pressure in the supply conduit; and
row pressure identifying logic configured to identify a pressure drop across a given valve based on the row pressure signal and the supply line pressure signal.

14 . The agricultural machine of claim 13 wherein the supply line pressure sensor comprises:
a plurality of supply line pressure sensors, the row pressure identifying logic identifying the pressure drop across the given valve based on the row pressure sensor signal and a supply line pressure signal generated from a closest one of the supply line pressure sensors to the row pressure sensor.

15 . The agricultural machine of claim 13 and further comprising:
a valve blockage detector configured to identify a valve blockage condition for the given valve based on the pressure drop across the given valve.

16 . The agricultural machine of claim 4 and further comprising:
a seed sensor configured to sense seed presence during a planting operation and generate a seed signal indicative of the sensed seed presence.

17 . The agricultural machine of claim 16 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic comprises:
a seed location identifier configured to identify the plant location in the field based on the seed signal.

18 . The agricultural machine of claim 16 wherein the seed/chemical correlation logic comprises:
a seed pattern identifier configured to identify a seeding pattern indicative of the plant location based on the seed signal.

19 . An agricultural machine, comprising:
a liquid reservoir that stores liquid to be applied to a field over which the agricultural machine is traveling; a supply line that defines a supply conduit; a plurality of valves disposed along the supply line, each valve having an inlet end and an outlet end and being controlled to move between an open position and a closed position by a pulsed control signal; a pump system that pumps the liquid from the liquid reservoir along the supply line to the inlet ends of the valves; a plurality of nozzles, at least one nozzle corresponding to each valve so that when the corresponding valve is open, the liquid flows through the valve to the corresponding nozzle; a plurality of row pressure sensors each sensing pressure at the outlet end of one of the plurality of valves and generating a corresponding row pressure signal indicative of the sensed pressure; seed/chemical correlation logic configured to identify plant locations in the field and correlate the pulsed control signal with the plant locations to apply a desired amount of the liquid material based on the row pres

Assignees

• Deere & Co

Inventors

• Wonderlich Grant J
• Herrmann Kenneth
• Steele Michael C
• Wolff Kilian
• Pruessmann Gerrit

Classifications

• B05B15/50

  Arrangements for cleaning; Arrangements for preventing deposits, drying-out or blockage; Arrangements for detecting improper discharge caused by the presence of foreign matter · CPC title

• B05B9/0423

  for supplying liquid or other fluent material to several spraying apparatus · CPC title

• B05B12/008

  integrated in or attached to a discharge apparatus, e.g. a spray gun · CPC title

• A01C23/007

  Metering or regulating systems · CPC title

• B05B12/085

  responsive to flow or pressure of liquid or other fluent material to be discharged (B05B1/3006, B05B1/323 take precedence; spray pistols designed to control volume of flow with the controlling means being fluid actuated B05B7/1254) · CPC title