Agricultural baler control system

• US 9,930,834 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2016
• Issued: 04/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deere & Company
• Original Assignee: Deere & Company
• Inventors: Chaney, Nathan A., Wenzel, Craig E., Foessel, Alex D., Anstey, Henry D., Erdmann, Jeremy M., Nomura, Rodrigo H., Gupta, Anand
• Application Number:
  US15/151,153
• Publication Number:
  US 20170118918A1
• Time in Patent Office: 693 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 69/007 Steering or guiding of agricultural vehicles, e.g. steering of the tractor to keep the plough in the furrow
• CPC Class Codes: A01D 89/00 Pick-ups for loaders, chaff-cutters, balers, field-threshers, or the like , i.e. attachments for picking-up hay or the like field crops field threshers with windrow pick-up apparatus A01D41/10
• CPC Class Codes: A01F 15/07 Rotobalers, i.e. machines for forming cylindrical bales by winding and pressing
• CPC Class Codes: A01F 15/08 Details
• CPC Class Codes: A01F 15/0833 for round balers
• CPC Class Codes: A01F 15/0883 for round balers
• CPC Class Codes: A01F 2015/074 Mechanisms for discharging a bale from the wrapping machine
• CPC Class Codes: A01F 2015/0808 Balers incorporate an inclinometer

Abstract

An agricultural material baling system comprises, in one example, a bale forming component configured to form a bale of agricultural material from a terrain, and a control system configured to determine that the bale is to be released from the baling system onto the terrain, determine that a current location of the baling system has a slope above a threshold, determine a different location, that is spaced apart from the current location, for releasing the bale onto the terrain, and provide an output indicative of the different location. In one example, the control system is configured to receive yield data indicative of a volume of agricultural material in a path of the baler and to control the baling system based on the yield data. In one example, the yield data is obtained from a raking operation that rakes the agricultural material into a windrow.

Claims

1. An agricultural material baling system comprising:

a bale forming component configured to form a bale of agricultural material from a terrain; and

a control system configured to;

determine that the bale is to be released from the baling system onto the terrain;

determine that a current location of the baling system on the terrain has a slope above a threshold;

access position-referenced terrain slope data that indicates a slope of the terrain at a plurality of locations along the terrain;

based on the position-referenced terrain slope data and the threshold, determine a different location, that is spaced apart from the current location, for releasing the bale onto the terrain; and

provide an output indicative of the different location.

2. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to determine a route for the baling system from the current location to the different location, and wherein the output is indicative of the determined route.

3. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the agricultural material baling system comprises a towing implement and a towed baler implement that includes the bale forming component configured to form substantially cylindrical bales.

4. The agricultural material baling system of claim 2, wherein the control system is configured to provide the output to a drive mechanism of the baling system to automatically control the baling system to traverse the route to the different location.

5. The agricultural material baling system of claim 2, wherein the control system is configured to provide the output to a user interface component, the user interface component being configured to render an indication of the route to a user of the baling system.

6. The agricultural material baling system of claim 5, wherein the user interface component is configured to render at least one of:

audible indications to the user that indicate suggested user drive inputs for navigating the baling system along the route to the different location;

or

visual indications to the user that indicate suggested user drive inputs for navigating the baling system along the route to the different location.

7. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the threshold is adjustable based on one or more input parameters.

8. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the threshold is based on at least one of:

an inclination angle of the slope of the terrain at the current location;

or

a difference between a direction of the slope of the terrain at the current location and an axis of the bale relative to the slope of the terrain at the current location after it is ejected from the baling system onto the terrain.

9. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the terrain slope information comprises information obtained from a raking operation that rakes the agricultural material into windrows.

10. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to receive yield data indicative of a volume of agricultural material in a path of the baler and to control the baling system by at least one of:

rendering an indication to an operator indicative of a speed of the baling system or a pickup height of the bale forming component; and

automatically adjusting a speed of the baling system or changing a pickup height of the bale forming component.

11. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to determine the different location based on the position-referenced terrain slope information and an indication of locations on the terrain where the agricultural material has already been baled.

12. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to select the different location from the plurality of locations based on proximity information that indicates a proximity of the baling system to the plurality of locations.

13. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to determine a latitude and a longitude of the different location and an orientation of a baling axis of the baling system when the baling system releases the bale at the different location.

14. The agricultural material baling system of claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to determine that the current location of the baling system on the terrain has the slope above the threshold based on a combination of:

an inclination angle of the slope at the current location; and

a difference between a bale axis of the bale system and a direction of the slope at the current location.

15. An agricultural material baling system comprising:

a bale forming component configured to form a bale of agricultural material from a terrain;

a bale accumulator; and

a control system configured to;

obtain terrain slope information indicative of a slope of the terrain at a plurality of locations,

determine that the bale is to be released from the baling system onto the terrain,

determine that a current location of the baling system has a slope above a threshold

calculate a different location, that is spaced apart from the current location, for releasing the bale onto the terrain, wherein the different location is determined based on;

a slope of the different location, identified from the terrain slope information, relative to the threshold, and

an expected completion time of a next bale in the bale forming component;

provide an output indicative of the different location.

16. The agricultural material baling system of claim 15, wherein bale accumulator is configured to hold one or more bales released from the bale forming component, and the control system is configured to determine the different location based on a number of bales currently within the bale accumulator.

17. The agricultural material baling system of claim 16, wherein the control system is configured to:

generate a bail release output signal indicative of release of a bale from the bale accumulator, wherein the bail release output signal is based on;

the expected completion time; and

the slope of the terrain along a path between the current location and a next location associated with completion of the next bale at the expected completion time.

18. A computer-implemented method of determining a bale releasing location, comprising:

receiving an indication that a bale within a bale forming component of an agricultural baling system is ready to be released onto a terrain;

determining that a current location of the baling system on the terrain has a slope above a threshold;

accessing position-referenced terrain slope data that indicates a slope of the terrain at a plurality of locations along the terrain;

based on the position-referenced terrain slope data and the threshold, determining a different location, that is spaced apart from the current location, for releasing the bale onto the terrain;

determining a route for the baling system from the current location to the different location; and

generating an output indicative of the determined route.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining the different location comprises:

determining a coordinate location of the different location; and

determining a desired bale orientation for releasing the bale at the coordinate location.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein generating the output indicative of the different location comprises:

rendering visual indications on a user interface device indicative of suggested drive inputs for navigating the agricultural baling system to the coordinate position with the desired bale orientation.