Crop Unloading Tube Positioning Using Vehicle Presence Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing agricultural harvester systems require manual operator intervention to position the crop unloading tube, which can be distracting and inefficient, and existing automated systems rely on complex image processing that consumes significant computing resources.
Innovation Solution
An agricultural harvester system equipped with sensors to detect the presence of a crop receiving vehicle and a computing system that controls actuators to move the crop unloading tube to a predetermined position, reducing the need for manual operation and minimizing computing resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual operator intervention is used to position the crop unloading tube, then the system complexity is reduced, but the operational efficiency decreases and operator workload increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses sensors to automatically detect the presence of the crop receiving vehicle and triggers the actuators to position the unloading tube without operator intervention. The computing system processes sensor data and autonomously controls the positioning, making the system self-servicing and eliminating manual operation while maintaining simplicity.
2Measurement precision
If complex image processing is used to detect vehicle presence, then the detection accuracy improves, but the computational resources required increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential detection function from complex image processing. Instead of using full image processing algorithms, the system uses simplified sensors to detect specific parameters (vehicle presence, position) and processes only the necessary data, eliminating unnecessary computational overhead while maintaining adequate detection accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs partial action by using sensors to detect only the critical information needed for unloading tube positioning (vehicle presence and basic position), rather than processing complete visual information. This partial detection approach suffices for the application and minimizes computational resource consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
An agricultural harvester includes one or more actuators configured to move a crop unloading tube of the harvester relative to a frame of the harvester. Additionally, the agricultural harvester includes a sensor configured to capture data indicative of a presence of the crop receiving vehicle within a crop unloading zone of the agricultural harvester. Moreover, the agricultural harvester includes a computing system communicatively coupled to the sensor. As such, the computing system configured to determine when the crop receiving vehicle is present within the crop unloading zone based on the data captured by the sensor. In addition, when it is determined that the crop receiving vehicle is present within crop unloading zone, the computing system is configured to control an operation of the one or more actuators such that the crop unloading tube is moved relative to the frame from a current position to a predetermined crop unloading position.