US-12622359-B2 - System and method for assisted or automated crop transfer

Abstract

A harvester includes a crop processor for reducing crop material to processed crop, a crop transfer arm for transferring processed crop material to a receiving vehicle, and a vision system including a first camera having a first field of view and a second camera having a second field of view, wherein the first camera is separated from the second camera along two axes. A control system is configured to use image data from the first camera and image data from the second camera to detect the presence of a receiving vehicle and to determine a distance between the harvester and the receiving vehicle, and generate control signals for automatically aligning the crop transfer arm with the receiving vehicle.

Inventors

• Elzbieta Pastucha
• Filip Slezák
• Martin Peter CHRISTIANSEN
• Morten Stigaard Laursen

Assignees

• AGCO INTERNATIONAL GMBH

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20231016

Claims (17)

1. 1 . A harvester comprising: a crop processor for reducing crop material to processed crop; a crop transfer arm for transferring processed crop material to a receiving vehicle; a vision system comprising: a first camera having a first field of view and positioned on a first side of a crop transfer arm, and a second camera having a second field of view and positioned on a second side of the crop transfer arm, the second side being opposite the first side, wherein the first camera is separated from the second camera along two axes; and a control system configured to: use image data from the first camera and image data from the second camera to detect the presence of the receiving vehicle and to determine a distance between the harvester and the receiving vehicle, and generate control signals for automatically aligning the crop transfer arm with the receiving vehicle.
2. 2 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the first camera is separated from the second camera along two orthogonal axes.
3. 3 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the first camera is separated from the second camera by a distance of at least twenty centimeters.
4. 4 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising: a controller configured to: combine image data from the first camera and the second camera to form a single two-dimensional image, use the single two-dimensional image to identify the receiving vehicle, combine image data from the first camera and the second camera to form a stereo image, and use the stereo image to determine a location of the receiving vehicle relative to the harvester, wherein a first portion of the first field of view overlaps at least a portion of the second field of view and a second portion of the first field of view does not overlap the second field of view, and a first portion of the second field of view overlaps at least a portion of the first field of view and a second portion of the second field of view does not overlap the first field of view.
5. 5 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , the control system further configured to send the control signals to a subsystem of the harvester to align the crop transfer arm with the receiving vehicle.
6. 6 . The harvester as set forth in claim 5 , the control system configured to send the control signals to a propulsion system of the harvester to adjust a ground speed of the harvester.
7. 7 . The harvester as set forth in claim 5 , the control system configured to send the control signals to a crop transfer system to adjust operation of the crop transfer arm.
8. 8 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , the control system further configured to communicate the location of the receiving vehicle relative to the harvester to an operator or to a control system of another machine.
9. 9 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , the control system further configured to communicate control commands to the receiving vehicle to cause the receiving vehicle to align with the crop transfer arm of the harvester.
10. 10 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , the first field of view being at least one hundred and forty degrees and the second field of view being at least one hundred and forty degrees.
11. 11 . The harvester as set forth in claim 10 , the first camera and the second camera being positioned such that a center of the first field of view and a center of the second field of view are angled away from one another by an angle of at least ten degrees.
12. 12 . The harvester as set forth in claim 10 , the first camera and the second camera being positioned such that a center of the first field of view and a center of the second field of view are angled away from one another by an angle of at least twenty degrees.
13. 13 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising a mounting assembly movably coupled with the crop transfer arm of the harvester, the first camera and the second camera being mounted on the mounting assembly such that moving the mounting assembly on the crop transfer arm moves the first camera and the second camera relative to the crop transfer arm.
14. 14 . The harvester as set forth in claim 13 , the mounting assembly being movably attachable to the crop transfer arm at multiple, discrete locations.
15. 15 . The harvester as set forth in claim 14 , the control system being calibrated to use the vision system at each of the multiple, discrete locations and being configured to automatically detect at which of the multiple, discrete locations the mounting assembly is located.
16. 16 . The harvester as set forth in claim 1 , the control system implementing a software-based clock synchronization protocol to synchronize the operation of the first camera and the second camera.
17. 17 . The harvester as set forth in claim 16 , the control system, the first camera and the second camera forming a local area network, the clock synchronization protocol being the precision time protocol according to the IEEE 1588 standard.

Description

FIELD Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for automated or assisted synchronization of agricultural machine operations. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for automated or assisted synchronization of machine movement during transfer of crop material from one machine to another. BACKGROUND Combine harvesters are used in agricultural production to cut or pick up crops such as wheat, corn, beans and milo from a field and process the crop to remove grain from stalks, leaves and other material other than grain (MOG). Processing the crop involves gathering the crop into a crop processor, threshing the crop to loosen the grain from the MOG, separating the grain from the MOG and cleaning the grain. The combine harvester stores the clean grain in a clean grain tank and discharges the MOG from the harvester onto the field. The cleaned grain remains in the clean grain tank until it is transferred out of the tank through an unload conveyor into a receiving vehicle, such as a grain truck or a grain wagon pulled by a tractor. To avoid frequent stops during a harvesting operation it is common to unload the grain from a harvester while the combine harvester is in motion harvesting crop. Unloading the harvester while it is in motion requires a receiving vehicle to drive alongside the combine harvester during the unload operation. This requires the operator driving the receiving vehicle to align a grain bin of the receiving vehicle with the spout of an unload conveyor of the combine for the duration of the unload operation. Aligning the two vehicles in this manner is laborious for the operator of the receiving vehicle and, in some situations, can be particularly challenging. Some circumstances may limit the operator's visibility, for example, such as where there is excessive dust in the air or at nighttime. Furthermore, if the receiving vehicle has a large or elongated grain bin, such as a large grain cart or a grain truck, it is desirable to shift the position of the grain bin relative to the spout during the unload operation to evenly fill the grain bin and avoid spilling grain. The operator of the receiving vehicle cannot see into the bin of the receiving vehicle from the operator's cabin and, therefore, must estimate the fill pattern of the receiving vehicle during the fill process and shift the position of the grain bin accordingly to try to fill the receiving vehicle evenly. Forage harvesters also process crop but function differently from combine harvesters. Rather than separating grain from MOG, forage harvesters chop the entire plant—including grain and MOG—into small pieces for storage and feeding to livestock. Forage harvesters do not store the processed crop onboard the harvester during the harvest operation, but rather transfer the processed crop to a receiving vehicle by blowing the crop material through a discharge chute to the receiving vehicle, such as a silage wagon pulled by a tractor, without storing it on the harvester. Thus, a receiving vehicle must closely follow the forage harvester during the entire harvester operation. This presents similar challenges to those discussed above in relation to the combine harvester. The above section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. SUMMARY A harvester according to an embodiment includes a crop processor for reducing crop material to processed crop; a crop transfer arm for transferring processed crop material to a receiving vehicle; a vision system including a first camera having a first field of view, and a second camera having a second field of view, wherein the first camera is separated from the second camera along two axes; and a control system configured to use image data from the first camera and image data from the second camera to detect the presence of a receiving vehicle and to determine a distance between the harvester and the receiving vehicle, and generate control signals for automatically aligning the crop transfer arm with the receiving vehicle. This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described in the detailed description below. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments and the accompanying drawing figures. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein: FIG. 1 illustrates a harvester and a receiving vehicle, the harvester including a vision system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 2 illustrates overlapping fields of view of cameras forming part of the