Control arrangement and method for controlling a position of a transfer device of a harvesting machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9532504-B2
Application number	US-201615065125-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2016
Priority date	Apr 2, 2013
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

Present invention is an adjustable transfer device for unloading processed crop onto a container of a transport vehicle including a control arrangement with an electronic control unit, among other integrated components. Electronic control unit calculates position of expected point of incidence of crop flow on the container within field of view of optical image capture device, displays image of container together with symbol representing calculated expected point of incidence of crop flow on container on display, receives adjustment inputs from user interface for adjusting position of actuator and thus of adjustable transfer device, updates position of symbol in image on display, receives confirmation input from user interface once symbol in image on display is in appropriate position, derives at least one feature in image representing container, and tracks container within output signal of image processing system based on retrieved image feature and controls actuator accordingly to fill container with crop.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of controlling a position of a discharge spout of a forage harvester to distribute material into a container of a transfer vehicle comprising the steps of:
a. positioning the discharge spout for unloading material into the container;
b. showing a visual alignment indicator on a display unit of the forage harvester;
c. aligning the visual alignment indicator with a predetermined location of the container shown on the display unit of the forage harvester;
d. actuating the discharge spout based on the alignment of the visual alignment indicator to align the discharge spout with the predetermined location of the container during material unloading;
e. tracking the predetermined location of the container; and
f. repeating steps d and e until material unloading is terminated.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of determining a point of incidence of crop flow with an opening of the container.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein step (f) further comprising the step of repeating step (c).

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined location is a front edge.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined location is an upper lateral edge.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined location is a side opening.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined location is an expected point of incidence of crop flow into the container.

8. A method of controlling a position of a discharge spout of a forage harvester to distribute material into a container of a transfer vehicle during material unloading comprising the steps of:
a. aligning an indicator with an image of a predetermined location of the container on a display, wherein the indicator is in communication with the discharge spout;
b. aligning the discharge spout with the predetermined location of the container based on alignment of the indicator in step (a);
c. capturing features of the container in proximity of the predetermined location of the container;
d. receiving GPS coordinates for the forage harvester and the transfer vehicle;
e. computing a relative location of the front edge of the container with respect to the forage harvester based on the captured features of the predetermined location of the container;
f. computing a relative location X 1 of the forage harvester and the transport vehicle based on their respective GPS coordinates;
g. computing a relative location of the front edge of the container to the transport vehicle from the GPS coordinates of the transport vehicle and the captured features of the front edge of the container to form an offset X 2 ;
h. receiving subsequent GPS coordinates of the forage harvester and the transport vehicle;
i. combining the subsequent GPS coordinates with the offset X 2 of the container with respect to the transport vehicle to calculate a new relative location (X 1 +X 2 ) of the front edge of the container with respect to the forage harvester; and
j. repeating steps h, and i until material unloading is terminated.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein step (j) further comprising the step of repeating steps (a) and (b).

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the predetermined location is a front edge.

11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the predetermined location is an upper lateral edge.

12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the predetermined location is a side opening.

13. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the predetermined location is an expected point of incidence of crop flow into the container.

Assignees

• Deere & Co
• Carnegie Mellon Univ A Pennsylvania Non-Profit Corp
• Univ Carnegie Mellon

Inventors

• Herman Herman
• Bonefas Zachary T
• Vallespi-Gonzalez Carlos
• Zametzer Johannes Josef

Classifications

• A01D43/087 Primary

  with controllable discharge spout · CPC title

• A01D43/073 Primary

  with controllable discharge spout · CPC title

• H04N13/279

  the virtual viewpoint locations being selected by the viewers or determined by tracking · CPC title

• H04N13/204

  using stereoscopic image cameras (stereoscopic photography G03B35/00) · CPC title

• G06T7/70

  Determining position or orientation of objects or cameras (camera calibration G06T7/80) · CPC title