Rotor Tine Height Adjustment for Crop Pickup and Soil Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural harvesting machines face challenges in adjusting the distance between tines and the ground to ensure consistent crop collection while minimizing soil and contaminant intake, particularly when soil conditions change, leading to inefficiencies and potential machine damage.
Innovation Solution
A harvesting attachment height adjustment system with sensors, actuators, and an electronic control unit that automatically adjusts the tine height based on real-time soil conditions and operator input, using a control system to optimize the separation between the rotor and the ground surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the tines are set low to gather more crop, then crop collection efficiency is improved, but soil and contaminant intake increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pickup apparatus height is made dynamically adjustable through automated height control systems that can modify the working height in real-time based on soil conditions, crop type, and field characteristics, allowing the machine to optimize between crop collection and contaminant avoidance
2Productivity
If the tines are set low to gather more crop, then crop collection efficiency is improved, but wear and damage to machine components increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables dynamic adjustment of tine height to maintain optimal working clearance, preventing excessive wear on knives, shearbars, and wear plates by automatically raising the pickup when soil conditions indicate high contamination risk
3Adaptability or versatility
If manual height adjustment is used to adapt to soil conditions, then adaptability is improved, but operational efficiency and time consumption worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The height adjustment system operates autonomously using sensors to detect soil conditions and automatically adjusts the pickup height without requiring operator intervention, making the system self-adaptive to changing field conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where sensors continuously monitor soil conditions and crop pickup quality, and the control system uses this feedback to automatically adjust height, creating a closed-loop control system that adapts in real-time
4Stability of the object's composition
If the pickup height is fixed for firm ground, then machine stability is improved, but performance on soft or varying soil conditions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from fixed to dynamic height control, allowing the pickup apparatus to maintain stable operation on firm ground while automatically adapting to soft or varying soil conditions through real-time height adjustments
Data Source
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AI summary
A harvesting attachment comprises a rotor having tines for processing of cut crop and a support wheel to each side of the harvesting attachment for supporting the harvesting attachment. A height adjustment system comprises to each side of the harvesting attachment a height adjustment actuator, a sensor adapted to detect and generate signals representative of a separation between the rotor and a ground surface and an electronic control unit in communication with each sensor. The electronic control unit is adapted to receive signals from each sensor indicative of the separation between the rotor and the ground surface, to interpret the signals from the sensors indicative of the separation between the rotor and the ground surface in line with a height adjustment strategy and to generate signals to actuate each height adjustment actuator in line with the height adjustment strategy.