Harvester Control System for Dynamic Biomass Rate Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current agricultural harvesting systems lack real-time capabilities to determine and manage soil effects during operations, leading to potential soil erosion and reduced soil quality, particularly in fields with varying soil types and terrains, resulting in inefficient farming practices and reduced crop productivity.
Innovation Solution
An agricultural harvester equipped with a control system that uses GPS and sensors to dynamically determine the position and soil conditions, adjusting the biomass return rate to prevent soil erosion and maintain soil quality by varying the proportion of biomass spread over the ground, ensuring compliance with predetermined soil effect thresholds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If biomass harvesting is performed to increase crop productivity, then crop productivity is improved, but soil erosion increases and soil quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the biomass return rate based on real-time soil effect calculations. The control system continuously monitors harvesting parameters and modifies the proportion of biomass returned to the field to maintain soil effects within acceptable thresholds, resolving the contradiction between maximizing productivity and minimizing soil erosion through real-time adaptation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates a feedback mechanism where the control system calculates soil effects based on harvesting data and uses this information to adjust the biomass return rate. This closed-loop control ensures that productivity goals are met while preventing excessive soil erosion by continuously monitoring and responding to soil condition changes.
2Ease of operation
If uniform biomass return rate is applied across the entire field, then harvesting operation is simplified, but soil quality requirements cannot be met in areas with varying soil types and terrains
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different biomass return rates to different locations within the field based on local soil type, terrain, and soil effect calculations. The control system uses spatial variability data to customize the harvesting parameters for each area, ensuring soil quality requirements are met in sensitive regions while maintaining overall operational efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the biomass return rate parameter dynamically based on location-specific soil conditions. By adjusting this key parameter according to spatial variability in soil type and terrain, the system maintains soil quality compliance across diverse field conditions without requiring completely different harvesting strategies for each area.
3Reliability
If real-time soil effect calculation and control is implemented, then soil quality and erosion prevention are improved, but device complexity and operational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is designed to perform multiple functions: calculating soil effects, determining optimal biomass return rates, controlling harvesting operations, and monitoring soil conditions. By consolidating these functions into a single integrated control system, the patent reduces overall complexity compared to having separate systems for each function while maintaining reliable soil quality management.
Data Source
AI summary
An agricultural harvester (100) has a control system (166) that is configured to control a biomass harvesting rate based upon electronically calculated soil effects.