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System and method employing short range communications for communicating and exchanging operational and logistical status information among a plurality of agricultural machines

  • US 8,280,595 B2
  • Filed: 08/12/2008
  • Issued: 10/02/2012
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2008
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A system for enabling short range intercommunication and the exchange of logistical information between and among a plurality of authorized agricultural machines that are designed to be operable in conjunction with one another to effect, as a specific identified group, a given agricultural operation, comprisinga plurality of individual agricultural machines located within a given area, each of which individual agricultural machines includes an operating system that includes an operator interface portion, a sensor input portion, a master machine control portion, and an operation performance portion,said master machine control portion operatively connected to said operator interface portion, said sensor input portion, and said operation performance portion,said operator interface portion including operator input controls operable to provide operator input data to said master machine control portion,said sensor input portion operable to monitor certain operational conditions and to provide sensor input data to said master machine control portion,said output performance portion operable to effect performance of certain actions by such individual agricultural machine under control of said master machine control portion thereof,each said individual agricultural machine also having associated therewith a communications control portion operable to transmit and receive short distance communication signals, said communications control portion operatively connected to said master machine control portion to effect the communication therefrom and thereto of communications data,said master machine control portion responsive to said data provided thereto from said operator interface portion, said sensor portion, and said communications control portion to establish operational parameters for said individual agricultural machine, at least a portion of which operational parameters define a logistical data set,each of said individual agricultural machines also having associated therewith authentication credentials entitling said individual agricultural machine to membership in a specific identified group, each such individual agricultural machine that has such authentication credentials being considered an authorized agricultural machine,said authorized agricultural machines being positioned with respect to one another to be within range of said short distance communication signals,each authorized agricultural machine operable, when in the range of said short distance communication signals, to transmit said authentication credentials of such authorized agricultural machine to establish its entitlement to membership in said specific identified group, each such authorized agricultural machine that has established such entitlement being considered an entitled agricultural machine,said authorized agricultural machines, when positioned in the range of said short distance communication signals and being entitled agricultural machines, defining and being group members in a peer to peer network that includes said specific identified group and has a wireless communications bus accessible through said communications control portions of said individual agricultural machines interconnecting said positioned plurality of individual authorized agricultural machines for point to point communications,at least one said group member of said peer to peer network being operable to identify a desired agricultural machine of said plurality of individual entitled agricultural machines as a specimen machine and to effect the transmission by said specimen machine of data representative of said logistical data set of said specimen machine over said wireless communications bus to others of said group members of said specific identified group for use thereby,whereby logistical information of an individual authorized agricultural machine of said specific identified group can be shared between and among other group members of said specific identified group but non authorized agricultural machines and agricultural machines beyond the range of said short distance communication signals will not be entitled to participate in said peer-to-peer network and to the intercommunication and exchange of logistical information with the group members thereof.

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