US-20260123570-A1 - DEVICE FOR DISTANCE OR HEIGHT CONTROL AND ATTACHMENT WITH SUCH A DEVICE

US20260123570A1US 20260123570 A1US20260123570 A1US 20260123570A1US-20260123570-A1

Abstract

A device for controlling a distance and/or a height of an attachment above the ground and/or above a plant surface. The attachment is attached to an agricultural vehicle. The device includes a scanner, an evaluation unit, and a control unit. The scanner detects a plurality of detections, detects a detection area, the detection area being is narrower in the direction of travel than transverse to the direction of travel, and detects objects via the plurality of detections and to record data on a detected angle, a detected distance to an object, and/or a density of the object or the objects. The evaluation unit reproduces a ground profile and/or the plant surface and/or a location-dependent plant density as evaluation data. The control unit processes the evaluation data into control commands and controls the distance and/or the height of the attachment to a target value.

Inventors

Michael Weigel
Rainer Mauch

Assignees

BAUMER ELECTRIC AG

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251106
Priority Date: 20241107

Claims (18)

1 . A device for controlling a distance and/or a height of an attachment above the ground and/or above a plant surface, wherein, the attachment is configured to be attached to an agricultural vehicle transversely to a direction of travel of the agricultural vehicle and to treat the ground and/or to treat plants and/or to harvest plants, the device comprising: a scanner which is configured, to detect a plurality of detections, to detect a detection area, so that the detection area is narrower in the direction of travel than transverse to the direction of travel, and to detect objects via the plurality of detections and to record data on, a detected angle, and/or a detected distance to an object, and/or a density of the object or the objects; an evaluation unit which is configured to reproduce a ground profile and/or the plant surface and/or a location-dependent plant density as evaluation data; and a control unit which is configured to process the evaluation data into control commands and to control the distance and/or the height of the attachment to a target value.
2 . The device as recited in claim 1 wherein the scanner is provided as at least one of: as at least two 1D radar sensors, as at least one 2D scanner, as at least one 3D scanner, as at least one FMCW-based radar sensor, as a MIMO FMCW radar array, as a phased array radar, as at least one ultrasonic sensor, and as at least one lidar sensor.
3 . The device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the scanner is further configured to detect the detection area in a beam shape with a substantially oval or rectangular cross-sectional area.
4 . The device as recited in claim 3 , wherein the scanner is further configured so that the detection area has a first opening angle which is transverse to the direction of travel of 30° to 180° and a second opening angle in the direction of travel of 1° to 30°.
5 . The device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the scanner is further configured to detect the detection area via a MIMO method.
6 . The device as recited in claim 5 , wherein the scanner comprises: transmitting and receiving antennas, wherein, the transmitting and receiving antennas are arranged in a common mounting plane which is substantially parallel to the ground and/or to the attachment.
7 . The device as recited in claim 1 , further comprising: at least one nozzle which is attached to the attachment, wherein, the evaluation unit is further configured to transmit the evaluation data at least in part to the control unit, and the control unit is further configured to control a spraying power of the at least one nozzle.
8 . The device as recited in claim 7 , further comprising: a position sensor which is configured to determine a position as position information.
9 . The device as recited in claim 8 , wherein the position sensor is further configured to forward the position information to the evaluation unit.
10 . The device as recited in claim 8 , wherein the position sensor is a GPS receiver.
11 . The device as recited in claim 7 , further comprising: a separate mapping unit which is connected to the evaluation unit, wherein, the evaluation unit is further configured to map at least one of a plant population and a plant density via the evaluation data, or the separate mapping unit is configured to map at least one of a plant population and a plant density via the evaluation data.
12 . An attachment which is configured to be mounted to an agricultural vehicle and to treat at least the ground and/or a plant surface, the attachment comprising: the device as is recited in claim 1 , wherein, the device is configured to control the distance and/or the height of the attachment above a ground profile and/or above the plant surface, and the attachment is provided as at least one boom and/or as at least one attachment which is/are configured to be fixed either in front of the agricultural vehicle or behind the agricultural vehicle.
13 . The attachment as recited in claim 12 , further comprising: an acceleration sensor which is arranged on the attachment and which is connected to the evaluation unit, the acceleration sensor being configured to compensate for a Doppler effect caused by rapid up and down movements of the attachment.
14 . The attachment as recited in claim 13 , wherein, the acceleration sensor is further configured to record acceleration measurement data, and the acceleration sensor is connected to the evaluation unit and/or to the control unit to transmit the acceleration measurement data which were recorded.
15 . The attachment as recited in claim 12 , wherein the scanner is partially directed in the direction of travel so as to detect the ground profile and/or the plant surface that has not yet passed during a travel of the agricultural vehicle.
16 . The attachment as recited in claim 15 , wherein that the scanner is mounted perpendicular to the direction of travel and perpendicular to the ground so as to enable a spray drift detection.
17 . The attachment as recited in claim 12 , further comprising: at least one nozzle which is attached to the attachment, wherein, the control unit is further configured to control a spraying power of the at least one nozzle individually so that only plants are treated and not gaps in a plant population and/or gaps between rows of the plants.
18 . The attachment as recited in claim 12 , further comprising: a control line and/or a wireless connection which is/are configured to transmit a steering angle to the agricultural vehicle, wherein, the agricultural vehicle comprises a steering angle control unit which is configured so that the steering angle can be determined by evaluating a position of plant rows and/or gaps between the plant rows so as to guide the agricultural vehicle along the plant rows by intervening in the steering angle.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS Priority is claimed to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2024 132 523.2, filed Nov. 7, 2024. The entire disclosure of said application is incorporated by reference herein. FIELD The present invention relates to a device for controlling the distance and/or height of an attachment of an agricultural machine and to an attachment. BACKGROUND DE 10 2017 004 808 B3 describes a control device for controlling a height of an attachment with a 1D radar sensor in order to determine the height of the sensor to the ground and/or to a plant and thus to obtain an actual value for the height of the attachment, which is compared with a target value. The problem with one-dimensional or point-based detection using a conventional 1D radar sensor is that the point-based detection sometimes only detects gaps between the individual plants. This means that the measured values that provide information about the condition of the vegetation are not representative. Crops are often sown or planted in rows. A 1D sensor will in this case be unable to detect the actual plant height in some cases if the 1D sensor is scanning between the rows, i.e., only at the ground or in the area of weeds, or the 1D sensor will move over a protruding plant and assume a higher plant profile to exist than is actually the case. The only remedy is here the use of a very large number of 1D sensors that are distributed across the attachment, which leads to high costs. SUMMARY An aspect of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages known from the prior art. An aspect of the present invention is in particular to make the agricultural cultivation of plants or soils more precise and economical. In an embodiment, the present invention provides a device for controlling a distance and/or a height of an attachment above the ground and/or above a plant surface. The attachment is configured to be attached to an agricultural vehicle transversely to a direction of travel of the agricultural vehicle and to treat the ground and/or to treat plants and/or to harvest plants. The device includes a scanner, an evaluation unit, and a control unit. The scanner is configured to detect a plurality of detections, to detect a detection area, the detection area being narrower in the direction of travel than transverse to the direction of travel, to detect objects via the plurality of detections and to record data on a detected angle, and/or a detected distance to an object, and/or a density of the object or the objects. The evaluation unit is configured to reproduce a ground profile and/or the plant surface and/or a location-dependent plant density as evaluation data. The control unit is configured to process the evaluation data into control commands and to control the distance and/or the height of the attachment to a target value. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is described in greater detail below on the basis of embodiments and of the drawings in which: FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a device for distance or height control of an attachment with a 1D sensor according to the prior art; FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of a device for distance or height control of an attachment according to the present invention in a plan view; FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of the device for adjusting the distance or height of an attachment according to the present invention in a planting system arranged in rows, as in FIG. 2; FIG. 4 shows a schematic representation of the device for distance or height control of an attachment according to the present invention in dense vegetation with a profile determination; FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of the device for distance or height control of an attachment according to the present invention in sparse vegetation with a profile determination; FIG. 6 shows a schematic representation of the device for distance or height control of an attachment according to the present invention in a transverse view; FIG. 7 shows that at least one panel antenna comprises four patch elements which are arranged in a row along an X-direction and/or symmetrically to a common straight line, wherein the straight line runs through the center point of the respective patch element; FIG. 8 shows an arrangement of several transmitter-side panel antennas and several receiver-side panel antennas, which are included in MIMO radar sensors; FIG. 9 shows a perspective view of an agricultural vehicle with an attachment on which a MIMO radar sensor is mounted so that the detection area in the direction of travel is narrower than transversely to the direction of travel; and FIG. 10 shows a schematic side view of the attachment with the MIMO radar sensors from FIGS. 7-9 for two different mounting variants. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The device according to the present invention controls the distance and/or height of an implement above the soil and/or plant surface. An aspect of the present in