The present invention relates to apparatus for displaying information to the driver of an agricultural vehicle. Though the invention may be applicable to combine harvesters and other agricultural machinery, its primary application is in tractors.
The driver of a tractor needs to monitor and control a wide variety of parameters relating to both the operation of the tractor itself and the operation of an implement attached to the tractor.
To monitor the operation of the tractor, it is known to provide a cab display (CD) screen which is connected through a proprietary communications bus to a dedicated computer which receives signals from different sensors that are mounted on the tractor. The driver can select to display on the screen the information that is relevant to the operation being performed at the time. For example, if operating a plough, the driver may wish to monitor the operation of the three point hitch and, when operating such ancillary equipment as a mechanical shovel, he may wish to monitor the settings of the hydraulic circuits powering the equipment.
To monitor the operation of an implement coupled to the tractor, on the other hand, it is known to provide in the cab of the tractor a separate virtual terminal (VT) display which communicates with the implement using a bus complying with industry standard ISO 11783. Using an industry standard bus to establish communication between the VT display and the computer mounted on board the implement, allows the same display to be used with implements from different manufacturers.
Aside from the cost of providing two separate screens for the cab display and the virtual terminal, the prior art has the disadvantage of requiring the driver to gather information separately from two screens and to use different keypads or control panels to select the information and set the control parameters displayed on the different screens.
In a copending patent application filed on the same day as the present application, the Applicants have proposed an agricultural vehicle having a screen, a control panel associated with the screen and two data buses operating using different protocols connected in common to the screen and to the control panel to permit the screen to communicate with two computers mounted on board the vehicle and an implement connected to the vehicle, respectively, so as to allow the screen to display selectively data relating to both the vehicle and the implement.
By enabling a single screen mounted in the cab to act both as a CD and VT display, the invention allows the driver of an agricultural vehicle to monitor and set parameters in both the tractor and the implement without having to switch between screens and control panels.
The ISO standard set down for the VT display requires the display to have so-called soft buttons along one side of the display screen. These buttons are used to select from various options displayed on the screen next to the button. The term “soft buttons” refers to the fact that the function served by a button at any time is determined by the software.
While the use of soft buttons is quite intuitive and used widely in computers generally, it has the disadvantage of requiring the screen to be in easy reach of the operator and for the operator to move his selection finger from one button to another to make the appropriate selection. This may not be convenient for the driver of a tractor, especially when it is being driven over uneven terrain.
With a view to mitigating the foregoing disadvantage, the present invention provides an agricultural vehicle having a screen provided with an array of soft buttons and connected to a computer programmed to display on the screen menu items selectable by operation of the soft buttons, wherein an additional input device is provided for selecting a menu item from those displayed on the screen, the input device comprising a continuously rotatable knob which is also axially depressible to select an item from a displayed menu, rotation of the knob serving to change the menu item that is selected upon depression of the knob.
Though the standard for VT terminals requires soft buttons to be present, the invention allows the operator an alternative mode of selecting a menu item, namely by the use of a single knob which may be considered in this context as a unidirectional mouse the rotation of which moves a cursor and depression of which selects a menu item highlighted by the cursor. The ability to move a cursor and make a menu selection without removing one's hand from a control knob, simplifies the operator interface considerably and allows more freedom in the positioning of the screen as it need no longer be within easy reach of the operator.
As tractor operators are not of necessity familiar with the operation of computers, it is desirable to configure the display of menu items available for selection such that navigation through the menu system using a single rotatable control knob is entirely intuitive.
With this aim in mind, the computer mounted on board the vehicle may suitably be programmed to display on the screen a menu of it ems available for selection by the user using the input device, wherein the image displayed by the computer on the screen comprises a first array of icons arranged in an arc, each icon in the first array being associated with a function relating to the operation of equipment mounted on board the vehicle, and a second array of icons lying in a ribbon adjacent the first array, each icon in the second array being associated with an item of ancillary equipment that may be coupled to the vehicle.
The number of icons associated with the on board equipment of the vehicle will be fixed and determined by the program of the on board computer. Selection of one of the icons from the first array will change the display to a sub-menu. For example, in the case of a tractor, sub-menus available for selection from the main menu may be associated with the control of the three point hitch, control of the electro-hydraulic remotes, the settings for head turning sequences etc. The selection of one of the icons from the second array will however turn the display into a VT terminal mode for the ancillary equipment connected to the tractor and, once such a selection has been made, the information displayed on the screen will be determined by the computer mounted on board the ancillary equip ment.
As the number of pieces of ancillary equipment may vary, the ribbon of the second array may be larger than the screen and the rotatable knob may serve to scroll the icons to allow any number of VT terminal modes to be selected. On reaching the end of either array, continued rotation of the knob will move the cursor seamlessly the other array, the cursor same circular movement on the screen reflecting the continuous rotation of the control knob, to make the menu item selection totally intuitive.
A problem that is encountered when navigating a complex hierarchical menu driven system is that an inexperienced user may find it difficult to return to a screen, not knowing the entire sequence of selection required to reach it.
To help mitigate this problem, it is proposed in a further aspect of the invention to provide on each menu displayed by the screen a set of icons graphically indicative of the menus that have to be displayed in sequence to arrive at the current menu. In this way, the user is provided with a graphical description of the position of each menu within the structure of the menu system
Advantageously, the computer is programmed such that a prolonged depression of the rotary control knob serves as a signal to return to the next higher menu in the menu hierarchy.
The invention will now be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIGS. 4 to 59 show only the cab display part of the images displayed on the screen as a user navigates through the menu system
In
The screen image is divided into two areas 14a and 14b. The area 14b is used as a conventional display of gears (DOG). This includes an icon indicating the direction of travel, and the currently selected gears in both directions. It will be appreciated that a tractor need not always be started in first gear and the display is used to indicate to the operator the gear that will be selected when the driver changes from forward to reverse drive. As best seen from the screen image of
The remaining area of the screen image 14a is used in the present invention either as a cab display (CD) to display information relating to the operation of the tractor, as will be described in greater detail below, or as a virtual terminal (VT) for an item of ancillary equipment, such as a plough or a baler, that is hitched to the tractor. Hitherto, two separate display units were required, one to act as a CD and the other as a VT and, aside from the additional cost, this made it difficult and complicated for the driver, who had to keep his mind on two different screens each with its own set of controls. The illustrated embodiment of the present invention overcomes these disadvantages by providing a dual function unit that acts both as a CD and a VT.
Because items of ancillary equipment are not dedicated to any one tractor, their connection to a VT terminal has to conform to an industry standard if the terminal is to be operated with ancillary equipment made by different manufacturers. For this reason, VT terminals on tractors are normally designed to operate with an ISO 11783 bus 18 and a standard connector 20 is provided on the tractor for connecting the computer of the ancillary equipment. The tractor data bus 22 which is connected to the tractor computer 24 and the various sensors mounted on board the tractor need not, and usually does not, conform to ISO 11783. The CD is therefore designed to operate in conjunction with a different bus from the VT and it is the incompatibility between the buses 18 and 22 that necessitated a tractor conventionally to be equipped with two different display units.
The need for compatibility also places certain constraints on the design of a VT terminal as it must itself comply with industry standards that dictate the aspect ratio of the screen and stipulate that certain switches be present on the display unit. The illustrated display unit complies with all these standards for a VT while doubling as a CD.
In the illustrated embodiment, a display manager 16 connected to drive the screen 12 is connected to two buses and manages the data received over both buses under program control to display on the area 14a of the screen either the image which would normally be seen on a cab display or that which would normally be displayed on a virtual terminal.
Aside from the saving in hardware, this combination of the VT and CD in a single unit simplifies operation by allowing the driver using a single set of controls to switch between a CD and a VT without having to move his attention from one side of the cab to the other.
In the remaining figures of the accompanying drawings, the functionality provided by the cab display will be described in detail. These figures all show the screen images displayed only in the area 14a of the screen 12 under program control.
Though there are controls around the bezel of the display unit, as described previously, the preferred embodiment of the invention provides the user with an additional and simpler input device 26 that can be used as an alternative to the various buttons on the bezel surrounding the screen 12. The input device 26 comprises an infinitely rotatable knob connected to a shaft encoder. Rotation of the knob in some situations can be used for cursor navigation in place of the left and right or up and down navigation buttons 15a to 15d. In other situations, rotation of the knob is programmed to be equivalent to operation of the value setting buttons 17. In addition, the rotatable knob can be depressed in a manner analogous to the clicking of a mouse button. Under software control, different actions can be allocated to depression of the knob, depending on the length of time that it is maintained in a depressed state. It is preferred for a short depression (a few milliseconds) to be equivalent to actuation of the Enter button 17 and for a prolonged depression (1-2 seconds) to be used in lieu of the Escape key 21 to exit from a menu to the preceding menu in the hierarchy. If desired, a further prolonged depression of the knob (5-10 seconds) may be interpreted as a depression of the home key 23, to return the program to the top level menu.
Hence, all the navigation and value settings can be carried out by the operator using an input device comprising a single axially depressible rotary button. The operator need not therefore remove his hand from the control knob of the input device 26 and as he does not have to look to see what button he is depressing, his attention is not called away from the windscreen and the display unit.
The screen images when the display unit is operating in the CD mode are shown in more detail in FIGS. 3 to 59. The program that is run by the computer 24 and which creates the various screen images shown in the drawings, is essentially a menu driven program with menus of different hierarchy analogous to an organization tree, with higher level menus displaying icons for the selection of lower level menus. The operator can use the input device 26 to navigate through all the various menus until reaching a particular parameter to be monitored, set or saved. Each screen is designed such that the cursor endlessly cycles from one selectable icon to the next as the rotary knob of the input device is turned clockwise and anti-clockwise. The cursor may be a pointer but it is simpler to show the position of the icon currently selected by highlighting it. This can be done in any suitable manner to distinguish the selected icon from the other available for selection.
The screen image shown in
By contrast, the icons arranged in the semi-circular arc are all concerned with the CD function of the display unit and these icons never move on the screen. When the knob of the input device is turned counter clockwise past the displayed Tool Box icon, the VT1 icon is highlighted and at the other end when the rotary knob is turned past the Profile icon, the VTN icon is highlighted. Thus the rotary knob allows the cursor to cycle seamlessly between the various CD functions, which are described further below, and the available VT terminals.
In the illustrated embodiment, the Parliament menu allows selection of nine different sub-menus associated with different aspects of tractor operation. FIGS. 3 to 11 show the effect on the screen of turning the rotary knob clockwise to select the different sub-menus that are available. As can be seen from these figures, when an icon is selected, not only does the icon become visually distinguishable from the others but also an enlarged image of the icon along with its function expressed in text is displayed in the centre of the screen. Icons are used in addition to the text to represent these various functions in order to make operation of the display as intuitive as possible to the tractor operator.
The nine different icons have the following functions, namely Tool Box, Performance, EHRs (AUX), Hitch Notebook, Trip Computer, Tractor Summary, HTS, Joystick and Profile. These will all be explained in further detail below.
FIGS. 12 to 30 inclusive are all screens displaying menus and sub-menus of the Tool Box.
At the left hand side of the title bar, there is displayed a set of icons showing graphically all the menus and sub-menus that have to be selected in sequence to arrive at the currently displayed screen. In the case of FIGS. 12 to 17 only one such icon is required, because the Tool Box is a sub-menu of the parliament menu but in the case of
When the uppermost of the six selectable items displayed on the right hand side of the Tool Box menu is highlighted (see
The next item selectable from the Tool Box allows the operator to set the operation level which, as shown in
The third item in the Tool Box menu, shown in
The next item in the Tool Box is a Settings sub-menu and the various parameters that can be set are shown in FIGS. 18 to 24. These parameters should be self-evident from the drawings. The top item in this sub-menu (see
The next item in the Settings menu (see
The third selectable item in the Settings menu (see
The fourth item on the Settings menu (see
The last of the items selectable from the Tool Box menu (see
The next item (see
The third item in the Driveline menu (see
The fourth item in the Driveline menu (see
This completes the description of the Tool Box and the next item selectable from the Parliament menu is the Performance menu (see
The top item in the Performance menu has an icon which includes a paper-clip like right pointing arrow. This is to indicate that this is a navigation short-cut to another screen of the menu system, the Trip Computer (
The second item of the Performance menu (
As seen by comparing
The target values can be set using the next item in the performance menu (see
The fifth selectable item of the performance menu (see
The top selectable icon in the EHRs menu is once again a short cut, as can be deduced from the paperclip shaped right pointing arrow in the icon. The short cut on this occasion is to the Joystick menu, itself selectable from the Parliament menu and described in greater detail below. The next two icons display the Front and Rear EHRs, respectively. Selection of any of these icons leads to a screen similar to that shown in
Within each of the Front EHRs and Rear EHRs screen the top icon is a short cut to the other. For each of the individual front and rear hydraulic remotes F1 to F4 and R1 to R4, the operator can see the current rate of fluid flow to or from the hydraulic remote displayed as a bar or thermometer-like reading. Above the bar of each hydraulic remote, two small arrows indicate maximum level for rate of flow in each direction. These can be individually set in the menu of
The fourth selection available from the EHRs (AUX) menu is a user selection of the front and rear EHRs grouped together in one screen. This is to enable the operator to display only the EHRs that are of most interest to the task at hand.
The last selection from the EHRs (AUX) menu, represented by an icon comprising one large and two small circles, is used to set the EHR to be given the highest priority when there is not sufficient fluid to meet the demands of all the EHRs. The user can set the high priority EHR to be any one of R1 to R4 or F1 to F4, or else to NONE.
The next icon selectable from the Parliament menu is the Hitch Notebook (see
The set of menus accessible from the Hitch Notebook relating to the Rear Hitch are shown in FIGS. 40 to 43, a similar set being also available for the Front Hitch.
It will be noted that each notebook screen has as a heading OPERATORA, this being the name of the operator which is set using the Profile menu to be described below with reference to
The first icon in each of the Front Hitch and Rear Hitch menus is a short cut to the other. All the remaining icons, when highlighted, display current values of parameters and targets associated with individual hitches, as shown in
The last of the settings that can be modified in the Hitch Notebook are concerned with Auto PTO (see
The values stored in the notebooks may additionally indicate the prevailing operating conditions and the use of notebooks is of course not restricted to front and rear hitches but is applicable to any other implement use in an agricultural vehicle.
The Trip Computer icon of the Parliament menu (see
The first selectable icon is a short cut to the previously described Performance menu. The second icon, as shown in
The next selectable icon, shown in
The next two icons (
Selection of the Power Management icon of the Trip Computer menu (see
In the CRPM Adjustment screen, the operator can select the constant engine speeds that are displayed in
In the Engine Adjustment screen of
The Torque Map screen in
The Fuel Map of
The Tractor Summary (see
The HTS icon (
Selection of the Joystick icon of the Parliament menu (
Selection of the Profile icon from the Parliament menu (
Selection of one of the VT icons (see
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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GB 0507928.0 | Apr 2005 | GB | national |