System and method of sub-surface system design and installation

• US 20050010379A1
• Filed: 07/08/2003
• Published: 01/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chad R. Meiners, Robert E. Meiners
• Original Assignee: Chad R. Meiners, Robert E. Meiners
• Inventors: Meiners, Chad R., Meiners, Robert E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,315,800 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/06 Watering arrangements making use of perforated pipe-lines located in the soil
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2001/021 Correlating sampling sites with geographical information, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

The system and method of the present invention provides comprehensive design and installation management for agricultural water management systems. Maps and grade profiles are created from data collected by Global Positioning devices in the field. Latitude, longitude, and elevation are triangulated from GPS data to develop contour, grade, and profile maps, used to design drainage systems in real time. Customer billing information and vendor pricing information are produced from map and grade profile data. Interfacing and machine control for machines used to install drainage and/or irrigation systems are generated from contour, grade and profile data. Data is exported and imported in common file formats for efficient data exchange.

Claims

1. A system for managing agricultural water management system design comprising:

a computer;

an input device for accepting GPS data into said computer;

means within said computer for constructing a drainage system design from said GPS data,

means for generating a cost estimate for said drainage system, and

means for producing an instruction set for tooling machines installing said drainage system.

2. The system of claim 1 comprising:

a mobile vehicle for collecting survey data in GPS format.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said mobile vehicle carryies an RTK system.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the mobile vehicle is selected from the group consisting of:

ATV'"'"'S, construction equipment, tractors, trucks, cars, boats, ships, helicopters, and airplanes.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

A tooling means for installing said drainage system according to said instruction set produced by said management means.

6. The system for managing drainage system design of claim 1 wherein the management means is a personal computer.

7. A method of managing agricultural water management system design comprising:

gathering GPS data of a field needing a drainage system;

constructing a drainage system design from said GPS data;

generating a cost estimate for said drainage system; and

producing an instruction set for tooling a machine installing said drainage system.

8. The method of managing drainage system design of claim 7 further comprising forming a contour map of the field.

9. An improved tiling machine for clearing sub surface areas, said tiling machine having an on-board computer and a GPS device, the improvement comprising:

a GPS-based instruction set downloaded into and executed by said on-board computer for controlling grade and depth of sub surfaces areas cleared by the tiling machine.

10. A system for installing sub surface systems in a designated area comprising:

a field computer comprising logic instructions for surveying and mapping a designated area with GPS coordinates;

a Real-Time Kinematic Differential Global Positioning System device electronically connected to said field computer for collecting survey data points;

an automated machine tool for installing sub surface components having a computer for controlling the grade according to an instruction set;

a management computer comprising logic instructions for preparing a contour map from latitude, longitude, and altitude coordinates, a sub surface system design, preparing an instruction set to control the machine tool grade, and calculating cost estimates for the sub surface system design; and

at least one I/O means for transferring data between the field computer, the management computer, and the automated machine tool.

11. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer program product, said computer program product comprising a means for grid initialization, a means for dropping a point on a grid, a means for querying the altitude of the point, and a means for generating topographic lines.