Ground sensor

• US 10,345,284 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2016
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Geoprospectors GmbH
• Original Assignee: Geoprospectors GmbH
• Inventors: Pregesbauer, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Huy Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dickinson, Dustin R
• Application Number:
  US15/781,027
• Publication Number:
  US 20180299422A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,079 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 76/00 Parts, details or accessories of agricultural machines or implements, not provided for in groups A01B51/00 - A01B75/00
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2033/245 for agricultural purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/025 a current being generated within the material by induction
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/24 Earth materials G01N33/42 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 3/10 using induction coils

Abstract

A device for surveying the condition of a substrate, in particular a soil sensor, having at least one transmitting coil and at least one, preferably four, receiving coils. The transmitting coil is arranged to generate an electromagnetic primary field and the receiving coil is arranged to receive the electromagnetic secondary field induced in the substrate by the primary field. The transmitting coil and the receiving coil are arranged in a housing which includes electromagnetic radiation shielding material. Also disclosed is an agricultural driven machine including a soil sensor and a method for operating a driven machine.

Claims

1. An agricultural driven machine, comprising

a soil sensor for surveying the condition of a substrate,

wherein the soil sensor includes at least one transmitting coil and at least one receiving coil,

wherein the transmitting coil is arranged to generate an electromagnetic primary field and the at least one receiving coil is arranged to receive the electromagnetic secondary field induced in the substrate by the primary field,

wherein the transmitting coil and the at least one receiving coil are arranged in a housing which includes electromagnetic radiation shielding material,

wherein the soil sensor is mounted on a front lifting mechanism of the driven machine,

wherein during a work run of the driven machine, soil parameters of a soil section are detected,

wherein for calibration of the soil sensor, a static measurement without a driven machine is first performed and, based on background noise detected in the static measurement, a static offset is determined, and consequently, signals detected during the work run are corrected by the static offset.

2. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein the housing includes an electrically non-conductive composite.

3. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic radiation shielding material comprises nonwoven fabric.

4. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 3, wherein the nonwoven fabric includes carbon-coated polyester and is arranged inside the housing wall.

5. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 4, wherein the nonwoven fabric has an electromagnetic attenuation of 70 dB to 90 dB in the low frequency range, and has a mechanical tensile strength in the longitudinal direction of 200 N/mm to 300 N/mm.

6. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 3, wherein the wall of the housing includes a plurality of glass filament fabric layers, wherein the nonwoven fabric is arranged between the glass filament fabric layers.

7. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 6, wherein the wall of the housing includes five inner glass filament fabric layers having a density of 280 g/m2 and an outer glass filament fabric layer having a density of 163 g/m2, wherein the nonwoven fabric is arranged between the second and the third layer.

8. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 3, wherein a grounding line electrically connected to the nonwoven fabric is provided to connect the nonwoven fabric to an external grounding of a driven machine.

9. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein the housing wall of the housing of the soil sensor has a thickness of less than 5 mm.

10. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein the housing of the soil sensor is hermetically sealed and the interior of the housing is protected against splashing water and contamination.

11. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein at least one distance sensor for determining the distance of the device to the substrate is provided on the soil sensor.

12. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein at least one inclination sensor for determining the inclination of the device relative to the substrate is provided on the soil sensor.

13. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein at least one localization module, preferably a GPS module, is provided on the soil sensor.

14. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein a device is provided for connecting an external computing unit and/or an external terminal to the soil sensor.

15. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein a computing unit is provided for converting the signals received by the receiving coil into electrical conductivity values and soil parameters.

16. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1, wherein a terminal is provided for controlling the soil sensor.

17. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 1 wherein control outputs are provided on the driven machine for controlling external soil cultivation equipment.

18. The agricultural driven machine according to claim 17, wherein the control outputs are arranged in the rear region of the driven machine, so that an immediate control of soil cultivation equipment arranged in the rear region of the driven machine is made possible based on the soil condition detected by the soil sensor during a work run.

19. A method for operating an agricultural driven machine, comprising providing an agricultural driven machine according to claim 1.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein signals detected during the work run are filtered through a filter in order to eliminate measuring errors and outliers.

21. The method according to claim 19, wherein the signals detected during the work run are filtered by an adaptive low-pass filter, wherein the parameters of the low-pass filter can be adjusted during the work run.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the cut-off frequency of the low-pass filter is set in an initialization phase and is adjusted during a work run when exceeding a limit value of the amplitude of the measured signals.

23. The method according to claim 19, wherein the soil sensor is moved during the work run of the driven machine at a speed of at most 15 km/h over the substrate to be examined, wherein the detected condition of the substrate is used to directly control soil cultivation equipment mounted at the rear region of the driven machine.

24. The method according to claim 19, wherein a warning message is output if the environmental conditions do not allow a surveying of the condition of the substrate.

25. The method according to claim 19, wherein the condition of the substrate is recorded in a first work run beforehand and is stored in a database and is used in a later work run for soil cultivation.