Agricultural Sensor Gimbal Alignment on Uneven Terrain
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing agricultural working machines face challenges in maintaining optimal alignment of monitoring units due to movements caused by uneven terrain, leading to incomplete environmental capture and reduced reliability in autonomous operations.
Innovation Solution
The agricultural machine employs a positioning unit, such as a gimbal suspension, to dynamically align monitoring units like cameras or sensors along multiple axes, ensuring they maintain optimal orientation and field of view despite changes in terrain, using data processing to determine target positions based on environmental and machine conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the monitoring unit is fixed on the agricultural work machine, then the structure is simple, but the alignment is affected by terrain movements causing incomplete environmental capture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a dynamic mounting structure (gimbal suspension) that allows the monitoring unit to move and adjust its orientation dynamically in response to terrain movements. This transforms the fixed mounting into a dynamic system that actively compensates for vibrations and alignment deviations, resolving the contradiction between simple structure and reliable alignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The gimbal suspension acts as an intermediary element between the agricultural work machine and the monitoring unit. It decouples the monitoring unit from direct rigid mounting, allowing it to maintain stable alignment despite machine vibrations and terrain variations, thus improving reliability without requiring complex active control systems.
2Reliability
If a gimbal suspension is used to maintain monitoring unit alignment, then alignment stability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The gimbal suspension creates a dynamically adaptable mounting system that passively compensates for vibrations and alignment deviations through its mechanical degrees of freedom. This dynamic structure maintains stable alignment without requiring complex active control systems, sensors, or power sources, thus improving reliability while keeping the overall system relatively simple.
3Measurement precision
If the monitoring unit orientation is fixed, then the device is simpler to operate, but environmental data capture is incomplete due to terrain variations
Solution Approach 1:
The gimbal suspension enables the monitoring unit to self-adjust its orientation automatically in response to terrain variations and machine vibrations. The system serves itself by using its mechanical degrees of freedom to maintain optimal alignment without requiring external control inputs from the operator, thus improving measurement precision while maintaining ease of operation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enhances the reliability of environmental data capture and autonomous operation by minimizing the impact of terrain movements on monitoring unit alignment, allowing for precise steering and obstacle detection, even in changing environments.
Implementation Method 1
The agricultural work machine comprises at least one positioning unit assigned to the monitoring unit, by means of which the monitoring unit can be aligned
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to an agricultural machine (1) comprising at least one monitoring unit (2) for acquiring data concerning an environment (3) and/or concerning a state of the agricultural machine, at least one holding unit associated with the monitoring unit (2) for holding the monitoring unit (2), at least one data processing unit for processing the data acquired by the monitoring unit (2), and at least one positioning unit associated with the monitoring unit (2) for aligning the monitoring unit (2). Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for aligning a monitoring unit (2) of an agricultural machine.In order to provide an agricultural machine (1) that enables improved alignment of the monitoring unit (2) adapted to the environment (3), the invention provides that, by means of the data processing unit, a target position of the monitoring unit (2) can be determined depending on the data acquired by the monitoring unit (2) concerning the environment (3) and/or concerning the condition of the agricultural machine, wherein the monitoring unit (2) can be aligned by means of the positioning unit in such a way that it can be transferred from an actual position to the target position.