Rotatable 3D Camera for Agricultural Harvester Unloading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural harvesting machines face challenges in ensuring correct filling of containers due to limited vertical viewing angles of 3D cameras, which can cause the container's near border to disappear from sight, leading to inaccurate unloading of crop materials.
Innovation Solution
Equipping harvesting machines with a rotatable 3D camera and light source mounted on the discharge spout, allowing the camera to adjust its position to maintain the near border within the observed image, using image data to control the unloading apparatus and ensure accurate filling, even when the camera's view is limited.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a 3D camera with limited vertical viewing angle is used, then light sensitivity and resolution are improved, but the container border may disappear from sight
Solution Approach 1:
The camera is made rotatable around a horizontal axis, allowing it to dynamically adjust its viewing angle. This enables the camera to maintain the container border within its field of view by changing its orientation, resolving the contradiction between using a limited-angle high-resolution camera and ensuring continuous border visibility.
2Reliability
If the camera viewing angle is increased to maintain border visibility, then container border visibility is improved, but light sensitivity and resolution are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than using a camera with a permanently wide viewing angle that would compromise resolution, the system uses a rotatable camera with a narrower field of view that can dynamically adjust its angle. This maintains high resolution while ensuring the border remains visible through active orientation control.
3Reliability
If the camera is made rotatable to maintain border visibility, then device complexity is increased, but container border visibility is improved
Solution Approach 1:
The camera is mounted on a rotatable mechanism around a horizontal axis, enabling it to adapt its viewing angle dynamically. This mechanical addition increases device complexity slightly but ensures reliable border visibility throughout the unloading process.
Data Source
AI summary
An agricultural harvesting machine, equipped with a movable unloading apparatus to transport crop material to a container driven in the vicinity, so that the container, seen from the harvester, has a near upper border and a remote upper border, and wherein a 3D camera is provided on the harvester for capturing images in which at least the near border can be seen, to direct the unloading apparatus based on these images. The camera is rotatable mounted around a substantially horizontal axis. The angle of rotation of the rotatable camera can be arranged such that the near border always remains in the field of view of the camera. The unloading apparatus can be controlled such that the processed crop material is deposited in the container at a predetermined distance from the near border.