Crop Overloading Lane Following for Accurate Vehicle Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for transferring crops from a harvesting vehicle to a transport vehicle require significant computing effort to generate and maintain parallel paths, leading to inefficiencies and increased complexity.
Innovation Solution
The method involves the harvesting vehicle recording its lane while operating, with the transport vehicle driven parallel to and following this lane, eliminating the need for the transport vehicle to calculate its own paths, and utilizing a monitoring system to ensure alignment and correct positioning for efficient crop transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the transport vehicle calculates its own parallel paths, then the path generation is independent and flexible, but the computational effort and system complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The transport vehicle receives and uses the lane recording directly from the harvesting vehicle instead of calculating its own path. The lane recording serves as a copy that is transmitted via GPS coordinates, eliminating the need for complex parallel path calculation systems while maintaining accurate alignment between the two vehicles
Solution Approach 2:
A communication system acts as an intermediary between the harvesting vehicle and transport vehicle, transmitting the lane recording data. This intermediary enables the transport vehicle to obtain precise path information without requiring its own complex calculation system, reducing both computational burden and potential alignment errors
2Device complexity
If the transport vehicle follows the recorded lane directly, then the system complexity is reduced, but the alignment accuracy may be compromised without monitoring
Solution Approach 1:
A monitoring system continuously compares the actual position of the transport vehicle with the transmitted lane recording and provides feedback when deviations exceed a threshold. This feedback mechanism ensures high alignment accuracy while allowing the transport vehicle to follow the simple recorded lane path without complex real-time calculations
3Device complexity
If manual monitoring of vehicle alignment is used, then system complexity is reduced, but the time consumption and labor requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system automatically detects and reports alignment deviations between the harvesting vehicle and transport vehicle without requiring manual intervention. The system serves itself by continuously monitoring GPS coordinates and issuing automated warnings, eliminating time-consuming manual monitoring while maintaining simple system architecture
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach simplifies the crop transfer process by reducing computational burden and ensuring accurate alignment, thereby facilitating efficient and streamlined overloading with minimal driver intervention and reduced soil compaction.
Implementation Method 1
The positioning system compares the current lane with a transmitted lane and issues a warning if the parallelism of the current lane deviates from the transmitted lane by more than a predetermined limit
Implementation Method 2
The monitoring system can, for example, comprise a camera system on the harvesting vehicle, wherein the camera system determines the relative speed of the transport vehicle
Implementation Method 3
Other possibilities include determining the speeds from the wheel speeds and diameters or using radar measurements to determine the relative speed
Implementation Method 4
Alternatively, the direction of the speed is preferably determined directly from the measurement. Alternatively, the direction can be determined using inertial sensors or steering angle sensors
Data Source
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AI summary
A method for transferring harvested crops from a harvesting vehicle to a transport vehicle, wherein the harvesting vehicle travels a plurality of substantially parallel tracks, the track of the harvesting vehicle is recorded while driving, the harvesting vehicle picks up harvested crops while driving, the transport vehicle is driven parallel to the harvesting vehicle, and during the parallel driving of the harvesting vehicle and transport vehicle, the harvested crops are transferred from the harvesting vehicle to the transport vehicle, the recorded track being transmitted to the transport vehicle, and the transport vehicle being driven substantially along the transmitted track.