Agricultural harvesting machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9648807-B2
Application number	US-201414324516-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2014
Priority date	Jul 8, 2013
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Grant date	May 16, 2017

Abstract

An agricultural harvesting machine has a control arrangement including an optical sensor device for recording image series of a continuous main crop stream, an evaluation device for ascertaining a portion of damaged grain, a portion of non-grain in the main crop stream or both, on the basis of an image analysis of the recorded image series and a visualization device for displaying the portion of damaged grain and/or the portion of non-grain. The control arrangement cyclically records image series of the continuous main crop stream and, within a predetermined processing time after an image series has been recorded, displays a current portion of damaged grain, a current portion of non-grain or both, based on the image series.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An agricultural harvesting machine including a control arrangement comprising an optical sensor device for recording image series of a continuous main crop stream, an evaluation device for ascertaining a portion of damaged grain, a portion of non-grain in the main crop stream or both, based on an image analysis of the recorded image series and a visualization device for displaying the portion of damaged grain and/or the portion of non-grain,
wherein the control arrangement cyclically records the image series of the continuous main crop stream and, within a predetermined processing time after the image series has been recorded, displays a current portion of damaged grain, a current portion of non-grain or both, based on the image series,
wherein the portion of damaged grain, the portion of non-grain or both, is extrapolated to a throughput of the continuous main crop stream by relating a measured surface area-portion of damaged grain, a measured surface-area portion of non-grain or both, of at least one image in the image series to a volume portion of damaged grain, a volume portion of non-grain or both, by use of a crop-dependent correction factor.

2. The agricultural harvesting machine of claim 1 , wherein the crop-dependent correction factor is a current portion of damaged grain, a current portion of non-grain or both, displayed as a percentage.

3. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , further including controllable working devices, wherein the control arrangement further comprises a control/regulating unit for adjusting parameters of the controllable working devices based on the current portion of damaged grain, the current portion of non-grain or both.

4. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein the evaluation device determines a raw portion of damaged grain, a raw portion of non-grain and an averaged operator portion of damaged grain, an averaged operator portion of non-grain or combinations thereof, wherein the visualization device displays an operator portion of damaged grain, the operator portion of non-grain or both and wherein the control/regulating unit adjusts the parameters of the controllable working devices based on the current raw portion of damaged grain, the current raw portion of non-grain or both.

5. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein the visualization device displays a video image in a form of a video freeze frame that corresponds to an image in the recorded image series.

6. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein the visualization device displays a funnel diagram, a vertical bar chart or both, wherein the funnel diagram, the vertical bar chart or both, represent the current portion of damaged grain, the current portion of non-grain or both.

7. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 6 , wherein the visualization device outputs a warning signal when the current portion of damaged grain, the current portion of non-grain or both, are located in a warning range.

8. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 6 , wherein the visualization device additionally outputs a warning signal when the current portion of damaged grain, the current portion of non-grain or both, are located outside a permissible range.

9. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein a funnel diagram, a vertical bar chart or both display a permissible range.

10. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein a sensor device comprises a light detector and an illuminating device.

11. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 10 , wherein the sensor device comprises a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) light sensor.

12. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 11 , wherein the CMOS light sensor comprises a global shutter for adjusting a light intake period and wherein the images of a single image series are recorded with an identical light intake period.

13. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 10 , wherein the illuminating device is a light-emitting diode arrangement.

14. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 10 , wherein the illuminating device generates a luminescent pulse for each image in an image series and wherein the luminescent pulses of the image series each have a different luminescent pulse duration.

15. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein a sensor device comprises a transparent housing piece that is part of a flat wall surface of a tubular crop conveyor.

16. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 15 , wherein the transparent housing piece forms a section of a crop conveyor cross-section, through which substantially the entire continuous main crop stream of the harvesting machine passes.

17. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 15 , wherein the crop conveyor comprises a crop drive arrangement.

18. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 17 , wherein the crop drive arrangement comprises crop paddles that move the continuous main crop stream such that the continuous main crop stream is at least partially deflected onto the transparent housing piece at an acute angle or at an obtuse angle.

19. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 18 , wherein the continuous main crop stream is conveyed past the transparent housing piece in a substantially constantly moving manner.

20. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined processing time amounts to substantially one second or less.

21. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein the harvesting machine is set up to selectively harvest a plurality of crop types and the control arrangement determines the predetermined processing time from a set of predetermined processing times based on a selected fruit type.

22. The agricultural harvesting machine according to claim 1 , wherein a sensor device records image series with a maximum cycle time or a period time and wherein the maximum cycle time or the period time is less than the predetermined processing time.

Assignees

• Claas Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen Gmbh

Inventors

• Escher Mathias
• Eggenhaus Georg
• Krause Thilo
• Kettelhoit Boris
• Kildeby Allan
• Van De Sluis Jan
• Behnke Willi
• Roewekamp Thomas
• Recknagel Stephan

Classifications

• A01D41/127 Primary

  Control or measuring arrangements specially adapted for combines · CPC title

• H04N7/183

  for receiving images from a single remote source · CPC title

• A01D75/00

  Accessories for harvesters or mowers · CPC title

• A01D41/1273 Primary

  for measuring grain loss · CPC title

• A01D41/1277 Primary

  for measuring grain quality · CPC title