AGRICULTURAL WORKING VEHICLE

• US 20090088932A1
• Filed: 09/23/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Claas Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen GmbH (CLAAS KGaA mbH)
• Original Assignee: Claas Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen GmbH (CLAAS KGaA mbH)
• Inventors: Diekhans, Norbert, Meyer Zu Helligen, Lars Peter
• Granted Patent: US 8,428,830 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/50
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 41/127 Control or measuring arrangements specially adapted for combines

Abstract

An agricultural working vehicle has a plurality of working assemblies, at least one control unit for influencing the setting parameters of the working assemblies, a memory unit, and at least one display unit, and it is configured such that even an untrained operator may optimize the setting parameters of the working assemblies in a rapid, reliable manner. An expected change in the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies is depicted in the display unit in a manner that depends on how an operator influences individual setting parameters of the working assemblies.

Claims

1. An agricultural working vehicle, comprising a plurality of working assemblies, at least one control unit for influencing setting parameters of said working assemblies;

a memory unit; and

at least one display unit, said display unit is configured so that an expected change in a function and/or a working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies is depicted in said display unit in a manner that depends on how an operator influences individual setting parameters of said working assemblies.

2. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein said display unit is configured so that the expected change in the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies is depicted in the display unit in the form of a trend of expected effects.

3. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein said display unit is configured so that the expected change in the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies is displayed in the display unit in an evaluated manner.

4. An agricultural working vehicle defined in claim 1, wherein said memory unit is configured so that a large number of setting parameters is stored in a recallable manner in the memory unit along with their influence on the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies, which are compared with current setting parameters influenced by an operator, in order to depict an expected change in the function and/or working result in the display unit.

5. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 4, wherein said memory unit is configured so that setting parameters and/or functions and/or working results that deviate from the setting parameters stored in the memory unit with their influence on the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies are stored in the memory unit in a recallable manner.

6. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein said control unit and/or said memory unit are configured so that at least one algorithm is stored in the control unit and/or the memory unit that calculates an expected change in the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies in a manner that depends on how an operator has influenced individual setting parameters of the working assemblies, the expected change then being displayed in the display unit.

7. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein said display unit is configured so that the expected change in the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies are/is depicted in the display unit in the form of different pictograms.

8. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 7, wherein said display unit is configured so that a shape and/or color and/or size of the pictograms depicted in the display unit differ depending on the expected change in the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies.

9. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein said display unit is configured so that an expected change in the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies is depicted in the display unit only for a certain period of time.

10. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 1, wherein said memory unit and said display unit are configured so that a large number of setting parameters is stored in a recallable manner in the memory unit along with their influence on the function and/or the working result of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies, which are compared with current setting parameters influenced by an operator, in order to depict an expected change in the function and/or working result in the display unit, and wherein, if the change in the function and/or working result is expected to be negative, an operator is also shown setting parameters that are stored in the memory unit that would bring about a positive change in the function and/or working result.

11. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 1, further comprising means for selecting by an operator individual or a plurality of functions and/or working results from a plurality of functions and/or working results of individual working assemblies or a plurality of working assemblies, the expected change to which is depicted in the display unit.

12. An agricultural working vehicle as defined in claim 11, wherein said means for selecting is configured so that when selecting from a plurality of expected changes to be displayed, an operator may evaluate selected changes to be expected in a weighted manner.

13. An agricultural working vehicle, in particular a combine harvester, as recited in claim 1, further comprising means actuatable by an operator and configured so that if an excessive quantity of tailings is detected, the operator reduces a concave width setting, and the control unit compares the setting parameters of the concave width with setting parameters stored in the memory unit and their influence on a working result, and, if the concave width selection is too small, the display unit shows that a quantity of damaged grain in a crop material will tend to increase.

14. The agricultural working vehicle, in particular a combine harvester, as defined in claim 1, further comprising means actuatable by an operator and configured so that if an excessive quantity of damaged grain in a crop material is detected, the operator increases a concave width setting, and the control unit compares setting parameters of the concave width with setting parameters stored in the memory unit and their influence on a working result, and, if the concave width selection is too great, the display unit shows that a quantity of tailings will tend to increase.

15. An agricultural working vehicle, in particular a combine harvester, as defined in claim 1, further comprising means actuatable by an operator and configured so that if it is detected that a contamination of a crop material conveyed into a grain tank is too great, the operator reduces a width setting of an upper sieve and/or the lower sieve, and the control unit compares the setting parameters of a screen opening width with a setting parameters stored in the memory unit and their influence on a working result, and, if the screen opening width is too small, the display unit shows that the losses due to cleaning will tend to increase.

16. An agricultural working vehicle, in particular a combine harvester, as defined in claim 1, further comprising means actuatable by an operator and configured so that if it is detected that losses due to cleaning are too great, the operator reduces the width setting of an upper sieve and/or a lower sieve, and the control unit compares setting parameters of a screen opening width with setting parameters stored in the memory unit and their influence on a working result, and, if the screen opening width is too great, the display unit shows that cleanliness of a crop material conveyed into a grain tank will tend to worsen.

17. An agricultural working vehicle, in particular a combine harvester, as defined in claim 1, further comprising means actuatable by an operator and configured so that if it is detected that a contamination of a crop material conveyed into a grain tank is too great, the operator increases a rotational speed setting of a cleaning fan, and the control unit compares setting parameters of the cleaning fan rotational speed with the setting parameters stored in the memory unit and their influence on a working result, and, if the cleaning fan rotational speed setting is too high, the display unit shows that losses due to cleaning will tend to increase.

18. An agricultural working vehicle, in particular a combine harvester, as defined in claim 1, further comprising means actuatable by an operator and configured so that if it is detected that losses due to cleaning are too great, the operator reduces rotational speed setting of a cleaning fan, and the control unit compares setting parameters of the cleaning fan rotational speed with setting parameters stored in the memory unit and their influence on a working result, and, if the cleaning fan rotational speed setting is too low, the display unit shows that cleanliness of a crop material conveyed into a grain tank will tend to worsen.