SYSTEMS, METHODS AND USER INTERFACE FOR GRAPHICAL CONFIGURATION FOR FIELD IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

• US 20160267203A1
• Filed: 03/09/2016
• Published: 09/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valmont Industries Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Valmont Industries Incorporated
• Inventors: CHRISTENSEN, Dale A., KREIKEMEIER, Bruce, FISCHMAN, Kevin K., ZESSIN, Todd
• Granted Patent: US 10,467,351 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• 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: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/02 Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining

Abstract

The present invention provides an improved system and method for designing an irrigation system for a selected field. According to a preferred embodiment, the system and method of the present invention calculates a complete bill of materials, customer pricing, design requirements and dimensions for a field irrigation system for a given irrigated field.

Claims

1. A system for configuring, designing, and selecting various field layout configurations of an irrigation system for irrigating a given field, wherein the system comprises:

a graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a user-interactive field screen for locating a field and defining field boundaries;

a display module for displaying the field;

wherein the display module is configured to access and download satellite imagery data for the selected field;

a machine data module, wherein the machine data module is configured to store machine data information for a plurality of irrigation machines;

wherein the machine data information comprises information including machine type, pivot length, and start/end angles for a plurality of irrigation machines;

wherein the machine data information is selected and updated via one or more drop down menus;

wherein the machine data information includes data for a plurality of optional machine configurations including cornering devices, swing arms and endguns.

a field boundary module, wherein the field boundary module comprises a polygon tool for identification and entry of a plurality of vertices defining a field boundary of the field;

wherein the field boundary module further comprises an acreage calculator module which is configured to calculate and display the acreage within a defined field boundary;

a LRDU module;

wherein the LRDU module is configured to receive identification points for a center point of an area to be irrigated;

wherein the LRDU module further comprises a radius calculation module;

wherein the radius calculation module is configured to calculate and provide data to display a LRDU path for a selected field based on selected machine data information;

wherein the LRDU module is configured to calculate the LRDU path at least in part based on field boundaries, center pivot placement data, start/end angle data, and LRDU circle placement data;

wherein the LRDU module is configured to automatically center the LRDU path within a field boundary;

a variable parameter module, wherein the variable parameter module is configured to identify and capture variable parameters of the field;

wherein the variable parameters comprise location data for positions of obstacles;

wherein the location data includes location data for trees, reuse pits, drainage ditches, pivot wheel track bridges, buildings, utility poles, buildings, wells, power poles, and bridges;

wherein the LRDU module is configured to recalculate and update the LRDU path and clearance distances based on at least one variable parameter of the field;

wherein the variable parameter module is configured to calculate and provide a comparison of acreage to be irrigated based on at least one obstacle being removed;

a parameter calculation module, wherein the parameter calculation module is configured to calculate and display parameters of an updated system design based on data from the LRDU module, the graphical user interface, and the machine data module;

wherein the calculated parameters comprise;

pivot length, machine type, safety zones, guidance tower speed, end gun reach, max ET ratio, minimum Arc Radius, and start/end angles; and

a system design module, wherein the system design module is configured to calculate a complete bill of materials, customer pricing, design requirements, irrigated acres and overall metes and bounds for completing a field irrigation system based on data from the machine data module and the parameter calculation module.