Harvesting machine capable of automatic adjustment

• US 9,629,308 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2015
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intelligent Agricultural Solutions LLC
• Original Assignee: Intelligent Agricultural Solutions LLC
• Inventors: Schler, Flemming, Batcheller, Barry D., Bremer, Marshall T., Butts, Nicholas L., Nystuen, Paul A., Reich, Adam A., Schleusner, Bradley K., Thurow, Bradley R
• Primary Examiner(s): Mawari, Redhwan K
• Assistant Examiner(s): TESTARDI, DAVID A
• Application Number:
  US14/853,949
• Publication Number:
  US 20160000008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 589 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 41/1272 for measuring grain flow
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 41/1273 for measuring grain loss
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 41/1277 for measuring grain quality
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/662 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/666 by detecting noise and sounds generated by the flowing fluid
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/93 Remote control using other portable devices, e.g. mobile phone, PDA, laptop

Abstract

A harvesting machine capable of automatic adjustment, comprising a plurality of acoustic material flow sensors, a control system, a processor, and application software, wherein the plurality of acoustic material flow sensors are mounted internal to the harvesting machine at points of crop material flow and are capable of sensing an amount of crop material passing by them, wherein the control system is capable of adjusting a plurality of internal elements of the harvesting machine, wherein the software is hosted on the processor, and the processor is operatively coupled to the control system and the acoustic material flow sensors, wherein the software uses information sensed by the acoustic material flow sensors to determine if the internal elements of the harvesting machine are set for optimal machine performance, and the software sends commands to the internal elements of the harvesting machine in order to improve the machine performance.

Claims

1. A harvesting machine capable of automatic adjustment, comprising:

a plurality of acoustic material flow sensors;

a control system;

a processor;

application software;

wherein the plurality of acoustic material flow sensors are capable of sensing an amount of crop material passing by them;

wherein the plurality of acoustic material flow sensors are mounted internal to the harvesting machine at points of crop material flow;

wherein the control system is capable of adjusting a plurality of internal elements of the harvesting machine;

wherein the software is hosted on the processor;

wherein the processor is operatively coupled to the control system and the plurality of acoustic material flow sensors;

said acoustic material flow sensors providing electrical signal inputs to said processor corresponding to crop material flow through said harvesting machine;

wherein the software uses information sensed by the plurality of acoustic material flow sensors to determine if the plurality of internal elements of the harvesting machine are set for optimal machine performance;

wherein the software sends commands to the plurality of internal elements of the harvesting machine in order to improve the machine performance;

look-ahead and look-aside crop mass predictive sensors;

wherein the look-ahead and look-aside crop mass predictive sensors are capable of providing an estimate of the mass of the crop that is immediately in front of and alongside the harvesting machine respectively before it actually enters the harvesting machine; and

wherein the estimate of the mass of the crop is provided to the software as an additional input for determining if the plurality of internal elements are set for optimal machine performance.

2. The harvesting machine capable of automatic adjustment of claim 1, further comprising:

wherein the acoustic material flow sensors are capable of providing an estimate of the mass of clean grain collected by the harvesting machine; and

wherein the estimate of the mass of the clean grain is provided to the software as an additional input for determining if the plurality of internal elements are set for optimal machine performance.