Agricultural Flow Control Gates for Turn Compensation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural product application equipment often applies insufficient or excessive quantities of products due to its travel pattern and field layout, leading to uneven distribution, especially during turns, resulting in excessive application near the axis of rotation and insufficient application away from it.
Innovation Solution
A flow control system with gates and actuators that adjust agricultural product flow based on the vehicle's speed, turning radius, and prescription maps, ensuring even distribution by controlling the position of gates relative to the belt and nozzles, thereby compensating for flow variations during turns.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the agricultural product application equipment follows a standard travel pattern, then the equipment can systematically cover the field, but it applies excessive product near the axis of rotation and insufficient product away from the axis of rotation during turns
Solution Approach 1:
The flow control system divides the application boom into multiple independently controllable sections, each with its own actuator and gate. This segmentation allows differential flow control across different lateral positions of the boom, enabling the system to compensate for the non-uniform application pattern that occurs during turns by adjusting each section's flow rate based on its position relative to the axis of rotation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the flow rate to each nozzle or nozzle group in real-time based on the boom's lateral position and orientation. Sensors detect the boom's position, and actuators continuously modulate the flow gates to maintain uniform application rates despite changes in vehicle speed, turn radius, and boom orientation during field operations.
2Manufacturing precision
If the equipment applies product at a constant rate, then the system operation is simple, but the travel pattern and field layout cause insufficient or excessive quantities to be applied
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the flow rate parameter dynamically for different nozzle sections based on real-time measurements of boom position, vehicle speed, and turn radius. The control system calculates required flow rate adjustments and commands actuators to modify gate openings, transforming the constant flow rate operation into a variable flow rate system that compensates for travel pattern effects and maintains application uniformity.
3Productivity
If the equipment turns at the end of rows, then it can complete field coverage, but excessive product is applied near the axis of rotation and insufficient product away from the axis of rotation
Solution Approach 1:
The flow control system applies different flow rates to different lateral sections of the boom based on their specific position during turns. Sections closer to the axis of rotation receive reduced flow rates, while sections farther from the axis maintain or increase flow rates, creating a non-uniform flow distribution pattern that compensates for the turn-induced application non-uniformity and achieves overall uniform field coverage.
Data Source
AI summary
An agricultural product application system for an agricultural vehicle includes a belt, a drive roll, and a flow control system, wherein the flow control system includes a gates and actuators, each gate controls a respective flow of the agricultural product to a respective output of the agricultural product application system based at least in part on a position of the gate relative to the belt, and each actuator is coupled to at least one respective gate to control the position of the at least one respective gate relative to the belt. The agricultural product application system also includes a controller that instructs each actuator to control the position of the at least one respective gate relative to the belt based at least in part on a speed of the agricultural vehicle, a turning radius of the agricultural vehicle, a prescription map, a field map, or a combination thereof.