Agricultural Plough Skimmer Sensor Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural ploughs face challenges in determining optimal operating conditions, such as soil moisture, density, and uneven terrain, leading to suboptimal tillage results and increased wear on ground-engaging tools.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a skimmer with integrated sensor devices, including force, optical, temperature, and ultrasonic sensors, to collect data on field and plough conditions, which is used by a control unit to adjust operating parameters like skimmer depth, plough body depth, and orientation in real-time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Force
If the ground-engaging tools are lifted to reduce drag on harder soils, then the drag and tool wear are reduced, but the tillage depth and effectiveness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The plough implement employs dynamic depth adjustment mechanisms that allow the ground-engaging tools to automatically adapt their working depth based on real-time soil condition feedback from sensors. This enables the system to maintain optimal tillage depth while reducing drag through automated liftering when appropriate, resolving the contradiction between drag reduction and tillage effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates sensors that continuously monitor soil conditions and provide feedback to the control system. This feedback loop enables automated adjustment of tool depth and position, allowing the plough to optimize the balance between reducing drag on hard soils and maintaining sufficient tillage depth for effective land preparation.
2Manufacturing precision
If the working depth of ground-engaging tools is frequently adjusted on uneven fields, then the furrow depth uniformity is improved, but the operational time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The plough implement is equipped with automated depth control systems that use sensor feedback to self-adjust the working depth of ground-engaging tools in real-time as they encounter uneven terrain. This eliminates the need for manual intervention and frequent operator adjustments, maintaining furrow depth uniformity while reducing operational time and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Manual depth adjustment mechanisms are replaced with automated hydraulic or electric depth control systems that respond to sensor inputs. This substitution of mechanical adjustment with automated control systems enables continuous adaptation to terrain variations without requiring operator time for manual adjustments.
3Device complexity
If operator knowledge is used to estimate soil condition, then the equipment and sensors are simplified, but the determination accuracy of field conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Manual soil condition estimation by the operator is replaced with electronic sensors that directly measure soil properties. This substitution provides objective, quantitative data about soil moisture, density, and other conditions, significantly improving measurement precision while the system complexity remains manageable through use of standard sensor technologies.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 1C
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a skimmer (100) for an agricultural plough, the skimmer (100) comprising a sensor device for determination of sensor-data, when in use, said sensor-data comprising field-data indicative of a field condition of a field across which the plough implement is being moved and/or plough-data indicative of operating conditions of the agricultural plough.