Agricultural Vehicle Fuel Consumption Display System
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural vehicles like combine harvesters and tractors face challenges in optimizing fuel consumption due to complex operating conditions, making it difficult for operators to quickly react to changes and estimate total processing time or fuel consumption, especially with increasing fuel costs and weather variations.
Innovation Solution
A self-propelled vehicle system that displays real-time specific fuel consumption and area coverage, allowing operators to visualize the optimal operating point and make informed decisions, using a computing unit to determine compensating curves and transmit data to a vehicle control device for energy-optimized operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If complex operating conditions are considered for fuel consumption optimization, then fuel efficiency improves, but operator response time and decision-making speed deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The control device automatically determines the current operating point and provides guidance without requiring manual calculation or complex operator analysis. The system serves itself by autonomously monitoring parameters and making recommendations, freeing the operator from complex decision-making while maintaining optimization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors operating parameters and provides real-time feedback to the operator about the current operating point and recommended adjustments. This closed-loop feedback enables quick response to changing conditions without requiring the operator to manually analyze complex parameters.
2Loss of information
If real-time data processing and display are implemented, then operational awareness improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and displays only the most critical information (current operating point, recommended changes, expected outcomes) from the complex set of operating parameters. By selecting and displaying only essential data, the system maintains high operational awareness while avoiding the complexity of processing and displaying all possible parameters.
3Use of energy by moving object
If multiple operating parameters are monitored and adjusted, then fuel efficiency improves, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The control device acts as an intermediary between the complex system of multiple operating parameters and the operator. It translates multiple parameter interactions into simple, actionable recommendations, allowing the operator to improve fuel efficiency without directly managing the complexity of multiple interdependent parameters.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
The vehicle has a chaffing drum (30) connected to a drive unit, and an operating device (5) provided for a user (26). A display device (25) displays an operating parameter detected by a sensor, and a computer unit (27) is connected with the display device for evaluation of the parameter. The computer unit determines a processing area per time unit from the operating parameter and a specific fuel consumption of the vehicle per unit area, where the display unit represents the fuel consumption and the area as functional combination. An independent claim is also included for a method for operating a self-driving vehicle for processing agricultural areas.