Agricultural lift with data gathering capability

• US 20080030320A1
• Filed: 08/03/2006
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Deere & Company
• Original Assignee: Deere & Company
• Inventors: Anderson, Noel Wayne, Dickman, Douglas Jeffrey, Wilcox, Timothy Amos
• Application Number:
  US11/498,454
• Publication Number:
  US 20080030320A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/521
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/02 Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining

Abstract

An agricultural data system including a vehicle, a lift mechanism associated with the vehicle, an RFID reader and a weight sensor system. The RFID reader is associated with the vehicle and/or the lift mechanism and provides for the reading of an RFID tag on an agricultural produce container. The weight sensor system is associated with the vehicle and/or the lift mechanism and it determines a weight of the container.

Claims

1. An agricultural data system, comprising:

a vehicle;

a lift mechanism associated with said vehicle;

a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader associated with one of said vehicle and said lift mechanism for the reading of an RFID tag on an agricultural produce container; and

a weight sensor system associated with at least one of said vehicle and said lift mechanism, said weight sensor system determining a weight of the container.

2. The agricultural data system of claim 1, wherein said weight sensor system is associated with the lift mechanism.

3. The agricultural data system of claim 2, wherein said weight sensor system includes load cells.

4. The agricultural data system of claim 1, further comprising a processor that obtains and stores identification data from the RFID tag and associates said weight with said identification data.

5. The agricultural data system of claim 4, further comprising a global positioning system communicatively coupled with said processor, said processor obtaining positional information from said global positioning system and associating said positional information with said identification data.

6. The agricultural data system of claim 1, further comprising a directional antenna associated with said RFID reader.

7. The agricultural data system of claim 1, further comprising a communications device that communicates information from the reading of the RFID tag and said weight information.

8. The agricultural data system of claim 1, further comprising an operator interface that indicates that said RFID reader has read information from the RFID tag.

9. The agricultural data system of claim 1, further comprising a proximity sensor that triggers said RFID reader to read the RFID tag.

10. The agricultural data system of claim 1, further comprising a processor that accesses information relative to an empty weight of said container and provides a net weight of produce in the container.

11. A data gathering system associated with an agricultural vehicle having a lift mechanism, said data gathering system comprising:

a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader associated with one of the vehicle and the lift mechanism for the reading of an RFID tag on an agricultural produce container; and

a weight sensor system associated with at least one of the vehicle and the lift mechanism, said weight sensor system determining a weight of the container.

12. The data gathering system of claim 11, wherein said weight sensor system is associated with the lift mechanism.

13. The data gathering system of claim 12, wherein said weight sensor system includes load cells.

14. The data gathering system of claim 11, further comprising a processor that obtains and stores identification data from the RFID tag and associates said weight with said identification data.

15. The data gathering system of claim 14, further comprising a global positioning system communicatively coupled with said processor, said processor obtaining positional information from said global positioning system and associating said positional information with said identification data.

16. The data gathering system of claim 11, further comprising a directional antenna associated with said RFID reader.

17. The data gathering system of claim 11, further comprising a communications device that communicates information from the reading of the RFID tag and said weight information.

18. The data gathering system of claim 11, further comprising an operator interface that indicates that said RFID reader has read information from the RFID tag.

19. The data gathering system of claim 11, further comprising a proximity sensor that triggers said RFID reader to read the RFID tag.

20. The data gathering system of claim 11, further comprising a processor that accesses information relative to an empty weight of said container and provides a net weight of produce in the container.

21. A method of gathering data about agricultural produce, comprising the steps of:

lifting an agricultural container in a field environment;

weighing said agricultural container to obtain a weight thereof during said lifting step;

reading an RFID tag on said container to obtain an identifier for said agricultural container; and

associating said identifier with said weight.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of obtaining a position of said agricultural container from a global positioning system.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of combining said identifier, said weight and said position in a data record.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of communicating said data record to a computer.