Discharge Spout Orientation Control for Crop Harvesting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing crop harvesting machines face challenges in maintaining accurate alignment of the discharge spout during changes in driving direction, particularly when turning, leading to suboptimal dynamic behavior and potential misses in the receiving area of the trailer.
Innovation Solution
The integration of a second sensor arrangement to detect changes in space orientation of the machine body and discharge spout, combined with the existing first sensor arrangement for optical reference feature detection, allows the electronic spout control to generate drive commands that compensate for orientation changes, ensuring precise guidance of the crop stream.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Length of moving object
If the discharge spout is made oblong form to increase crop stream delivery distance, then the crop stream can reach farther, but small deviations in space orientation cause relatively large deviations in the course of travel of the crop stream
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses gyroscopes to detect changes in machine body orientation and provides feedback to the electronic spout control, which automatically adjusts the discharge spout position to compensate for orientation changes, maintaining crop stream accuracy despite the long spout length
Solution Approach 2:
The gyroscope detects orientation changes in advance, allowing the electronic spout control to proactively adjust the discharge spout position before the crop stream is affected, preventing accuracy degradation
2Adaptability or versatility
If the machine body undergoes changes in driving direction, then the harvesting machine can navigate turns, but the space orientation of the machine body and discharge spout changes unexpectedly, causing the crop stream to miss the receiving area
Solution Approach 1:
The gyroscope continuously monitors machine body orientation during turns and provides real-time feedback to the electronic spout control, which dynamically adjusts the discharge spout to maintain crop stream alignment with the trailer receiving area
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a static discharge spout configuration to a dynamic one, where the electronic spout control continuously adjusts the spout position based on real-time gyroscope data, enabling the system to adapt to changing driving directions while maintaining precision
3Measurement precision
If the first sensor arrangement is used for optical reference feature detection, then the position of the trailer can be identified, but the update frequency of sensor information is relatively low due to long evaluation time
Solution Approach 1:
The gyroscope acts as an intermediary sensor that provides high-frequency orientation data to complement the lower-frequency optical position data, allowing the electronic spout control to make rapid adjustments based on gyroscope information while using optical data for overall position verification
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges data from two different sensor arrangements - the first sensor arrangement for trailer position identification and the second sensor arrangement (gyroscope) for orientation detection - to achieve both high measurement precision and high update frequency
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 solution enhances the dynamic behavior of the spout control by minimizing the impact of space orientation changes, resulting in improved accuracy and reliability of crop stream delivery to the trailer, even during turns and inclinations.
Implementation Method 1
the second sensor arrangement comprises a mechanic or electronic gyroscope, which may well detect a change and/or a change rate in space orientation of the machine body and/or the discharge spout
Data Source
AI summary
A crop harvesting machine has a machine body and a discharge spout attached to the machine body for overloading crop via a crop stream to a trailer. And electronic spout control and a discharge spout drive arrangement displaces the discharge spout relative to the machine body based on drive commands of the electronic spout control for guiding the crop stream to a target hit point at the trailer. A first sensor arrangement generates sensor information by optically identifying a reference feature at the trailer and detecting the position of the reference feature and/or space orientation of the reference feature. The second sensor arrangement generates sensor information by detecting a space orientation of the machine body, the discharge spout or both. The electronic spout control generates its drive commands for guiding the crop stream based on the sensor information.