CONTROLLING FORESTRY MACHINES ACROSS A JOBSITE

• US 20190325669A1
• Filed: 04/23/2018
• Published: 10/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deere & Company
• Original Assignee: Deere & Company
• Inventors: Flood, Matthew J., Jerauld, Alek D., Hamilton, Robert A.
• Granted Patent: US 11,004,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 23/00 Forestry
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00

Abstract

A machine output detection and control system includes machine metric logic that detects a plurality of quantity metrics, each quantity metric corresponding to sensor information associated with at least one mobile machine in a plurality of different mobile machines. The system also includes normalization logic that aggregates the plurality of different quantity metrics to generate, for each mobile machine, a normalized production unit that is normalized across the plurality of different mobile machines. Dependency logic correlates the normalized production unit, for each mobile machine, to a machine dependency that identifies an order in which the plurality of different mobile machines operate at a jobsite. Further, action signal logic generates an action signal, based on the correlation.

Claims

1. A machine output detection and control system, comprising:

machine metric logic that detects a plurality of quantity metrics, each quantity metric corresponding to sensor information associated with at least one mobile machine in a plurality of different mobile machines;

aggregation logic that aggregates the plurality of different quantity metrics to generate, for each mobile machine, a normalized production unit that is normalized across the plurality of different mobile machines;

machine dependency logic that correlates the normalized production unit, for each mobile machine, to a machine dependency that identifies an order in which the plurality of different mobile machines operate on a set of material at a jobsite; and

action signal logic that generates an action signal, based on the correlation.

2. The machine output detection and control system of claim 1, wherein the aggregation logic is configured to detect an uptime, for each mobile machine, and based on the detected uptime, define a cycle time that a particular mobile machine operates to output a measure of material.

3. The machine output detection and control system of claim 1, wherein the action signal logic is configured to generate an indication of a bottleneck that identifies, on a user interface that visually represents the order, a particular one of the mobile machines corresponding to the bottleneck.

4. The machine output detection and control system of claim 1, wherein the action signal logic is configured to generate instructions that control one or more controllable subsystems, on a particular one of the mobile machines, to improve performance of the particular one of the mobile machines operating according to a given cycle.

5. The machine output detection and control system of claim 2, further comprising:

threshold logic configured to define a threshold production unit including a threshold measure of material and a threshold cycle time.

6. The machine output detection and control system of claim 5, wherein the threshold logic comprises:

comparison logic configured to compare the normalized production unit, for the particular mobile machine, to the threshold production unit, and generate a comparison output signal based on the comparison.

7. The machine output detection and control system of claim 6, wherein the aggregation logic is configured to identify the measure of material, output by the particular mobile machine during the cycle time, as an amount of material that is to be output in order to meet the threshold measure of material.

8. The machine output detection and control system of claim 7, wherein the comparison logic is configured to determine that the cycle time, of the particular mobile machine, needed to output the amount of material that meets the threshold measure of material does not meet the threshold cycle time, and further comprising, wherein the action signal logic further comprises:

control signal generator logic configured, based on the determination, to generate a control signal to perform a control operation that controls the particular mobile machine.

9. The machine output detection and control system of claim 8, further comprising:

machine identification logic configured to automatically identify the particular mobile machine, based on the determination that the cycle time of the particular mobile machine does not meet the threshold cycle time, and generate a machine identifier signal indicative of the particular mobile machine identified.

10. The machine output detection and control system of claim 9, wherein the machine dependency logic is configured to receive the machine identifier signal and identify the particular mobile machine as a limiting machine that limits an ability of the other mobile machines, that are downstream from the particular mobile machine in the order, to meet the threshold measure of material and the threshold cycle time, and wherein the action signal logic is configured to generate, as the action signal, a user display signal to display an indication of the limiting machine on a user interface display.

11. The machine output detection and control system of claim 5, further comprising:

demand input logic configured to receive an indication of a demand and define a target amount of material to be processed at a jobsite and a total cycle time available for processing the target amount of material at the jobsite, based on the indication of the demand; and

wherein the threshold logic is configured to generate the threshold measure of material based on the target amount of material for the jobsite, and generate the threshold cycle time based on the total cycle time available for the jobsite.

12. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

detecting a plurality of quantity metrics corresponding to sensor information associated with a plurality of different mobile machines;

aggregating the plurality of different quantity metrics to a normalized production unit that is normalized across the plurality of different mobile machines;

correlating the normalized production unit, for each mobile machine, to a machine dependency that identifies an order in which the plurality of different mobile machines perform an operation on a set of material; and

generating an action signal, based on the correlation.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein aggregating the plurality of different quantity metrics to a normalized production unit, comprises:

defining, for a particular one of the mobile machines, the normalized production unit including a cycle time used by the particular mobile machine to output a measure of material.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

detecting a threshold input defining a threshold production unit including a threshold measure of material and a threshold cycle time.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14 wherein correlating the normalized production unit, for each mobile machine, to the machine dependency comprises:

comparing the normalized production unit, for the particular mobile machine, to the threshold production unit; and

generating a comparison signal based on the comparison.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein comparing the normalized production unit to the threshold production unit comprises:

measuring the cycle time as an amount time that the particular mobile machine operates to output the measure of material that meets the threshold measure of material; and

determining whether the cycle time meets the threshold cycle time, the comparison signal being indicative of whether the cycle time meets the threshold cycle time.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein generating an action signal comprises:

automatically generating an indication of a bottleneck in the machine dependency, based on a determination that the cycle time, of the particular mobile machine, does not meet the threshold cycle time; and

generating the action signal to identify the particular mobile machine as a limiting machine limiting an ability of the other mobile machines, downstream from the particular mobile machine in the order, to output the threshold measure of material within the threshold cycle time.

18. A machine control system, comprising:

machine metric logic that detects a plurality of quantity metrics, each quantity metric corresponding to sensor information associated with at least one of a plurality of different mobile machines at a jobsite;

aggregation logic that aggregates the plurality of different quantity metrics to generate, for each mobile machine, a normalized production unit that is normalized across the plurality of different mobile machines;

machine dependency logic that correlates the normalized production unit, for each mobile machine, to a machine dependency that identifies a machine order in which the plurality of different mobile machines perform an operation on a set of material;

machine identification logic that identifies a particular mobile machine, of the plurality of different mobile machines in the machine order, based on a determination that the normalized production unit for the particular mobile machine does not meet a threshold production unit; and

action signal logic that generates an action signal, based on the particular mobile machine identified and the machine order.

19. The machine control system of claim 18, wherein the aggregation logic is configured to generate the normalized production unit, for the particular mobile machine, as an indication of a measured amount of material processed by the particular mobile machine during a machine cycle having a defined cycle time, and generate a unit signal indicative of the normalized production unit for the particular mobile machine.

20. The machine control system of claim 19, further comprising:

threshold logic that defines a threshold amount of material and a threshold cycle time, based on an indication of a jobsite demand, and wherein the machine identification logic is configured to identify a machine cycle time needed to process the threshold amount of material, and identify the particular mobile machine as a bottleneck that limits material output by the plurality of different mobile machines operating on the set of material in the machine order.