Tractor Tool Dispensing Control With Predictive Release Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous and semi-autonomous farming equipment faces inefficiencies due to inaccuracies in predictions, leading to product loss, increased time, and fuel expenditure. Existing safeguards prioritize avoiding product loss but introduce inefficiencies in time and fuel usage.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a tractor controller that improves predictive techniques by incorporating parameters such as speed, acceleration, and turn parameters to predict when a tractor is a certain distance away from the dispensing point, allowing the product to be dispensed ahead of time to ensure accurate placement and optimize time and fuel usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If safeguards are put in place to guarantee product dispensing accuracy, then product loss is reduced, but time loss and fuel expenditure increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by calculating the release point in advance based on predicted tractor position and delay time. The controller determines where the tractor should be released based on current speed, acceleration, and the known mechanical delay of the dispensing tool, allowing the system to prepare and execute dispensing at the optimal moment without waiting or re-visiting areas.
2Loss of substance
If safeguards are put in place to guarantee product dispensing accuracy, then product loss is reduced, but fuel expenditure increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors actual tractor speed, acceleration, and position, comparing these against the predicted parameters used to calculate the release point. This feedback mechanism allows the system to adapt to real-time variations in tractor operation, ensuring accurate product dispensing without requiring excessive conservative margins that would waste fuel or time.
3Device complexity
If traditional predictive techniques are used without incorporating tractor operation parameters, then system complexity is reduced, but manufacturing precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the release point calculation based on changing tractor operation parameters such as speed and acceleration. By incorporating these real-time parameters into the prediction model, the system achieves high dispensing precision without requiring overly complex hardware modifications, as the complexity is managed through software-based parameter adjustment.
Data Source
AI summary
A device detects a trigger to dispense a product at a using a tool operably coupled to a tractor. The device determines whether the tractor is in an automated mode, the automated mode enabling autonomous speed and direction navigation of the tractor. Responsive to determining that the tractor is not in the automated mode, the device determines whether the tool is in a ready state, and responsive to determining that the tool is in the ready state, commands the tool to dispense the product, wherein the tool is not commanded to dispense the product until the tool is in the ready state. Responsive to determining that the tractor is in the automated mode, the device commands the tool to dispense the product without determining whether the tool is in the ready state.