Predictive Map Control of Draper Belt Speed on Sloped Fields
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural harvesters face performance degradation when navigating slopes due to uneven material flow, leading to grain loss or header plugging, as the pitch and roll of the harvester affect draper belt speed, causing material to overshoot or plug the header.
Innovation Solution
An agricultural work machine generates predictive maps using in-situ sensors and prior information maps to control draper belt speed based on topographic characteristics, ensuring optimal speed adjustments across different terrain conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the harvester travels over a sloped feature, then the harvester can access more terrain areas, but the pitch or roll of the harvester impedes performance causing material flow inconsistency
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary mapping of topographic characteristics (slopes, elevations) before harvesting operations. This advance knowledge allows the control system to pre-calculate compensatory draper belt speed adjustments, ensuring material flow consistency is maintained before the harvester even encounters the sloped terrain.
Solution Approach 2:
The draper belt speed is made dynamic rather than fixed. The control system continuously adjusts draper belt speed based on real-time location data and topographic information, allowing the system to adapt to varying slope conditions and maintain consistent material flow despite changes in terrain pitch and roll.
2Reliability
If the operator manually modifies control settings upon encountering slopes, then performance can be adjusted, but response time is delayed and operator attention is required
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where GPS location data, topographic map data, and actual material flow sensors feed into the control system. This real-time feedback enables automatic detection of slope conditions and immediate compensatory adjustments to draper belt speed, eliminating the delay associated with manual operator intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system performs self-adjustment of draper belt speed based on pre-loaded topographic maps and real-time position data. The system serves itself by automatically detecting slope conditions and making necessary control modifications without requiring operator attention, thus eliminating response time delays.
3Reliability
If draper belt speed is increased to prevent plugging, then material flow improves, but grain loss increases due to overshooting
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different draper belt speed adjustments to different sections of the header based on local topographic conditions. Rather than uniformly increasing speed across the entire draper belt, the control system modulates speed locally according to the specific slope and elevation characteristics at each position, preventing both plugging and overshooting.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically changes the speed parameter of the draper belt based on topographic conditions. By continuously adjusting this critical parameter in response to slope and elevation data, the system optimizes material flow to maintain consistency without excessive speed that would cause grain loss through overshooting.
Data Source
AI summary
One or more information maps are obtained by an agricultural work machine. The one or more information maps map one or more agricultural characteristic values at different geographic locations of a field. An in-situ sensor on the agricultural work machine senses an agricultural characteristic as the agricultural work machine moves through the field. A predictive map generator generates a predictive map that predicts a predictive agricultural characteristic at different locations in the field based on a relationship between the values in the one or more information maps and the agricultural characteristic sensed by the in-situ sensor. The predictive map can be output and used in automated machine control.