Patent Application
20170113549
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to agricultural systems, and, more particularly, to a run screen interface for a display associated with agricultural systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Farmers utilize a wide variety of implements, including cultivation equipment, seed drills and planters. In a known type of planting implement, seed planting or row units are attached to a toolbar extending transverse to the direction of planting. The toolbar is coupled to a tractor or other work vehicle suitable for pulling the planting implement along a field that is to be seeded to a crop. Each planting unit includes a ground penetrating assembly, often including one or more discs, for opening a seed trench or furrow in the ground as the planting implement is pulled across a field. Components of the ground penetrating assembly shape the bottom and sides of the seed trench, and a seed-metering device provides individual seeds at a controlled rate for deposit in the seed trench. Furrow closing components of each row unit close the seed trench in a controlled manner.
Agricultural planters are commonly used implements to plant seeds in soil. An agricultural planter can include a chassis that carries one or more storage tanks carrying seed, and chemical applications that are to be applied to the field during the planting operation, a hitch mechanism that attaches to a tractor or other implement pulled by a tractor, and a tool bar that row units can be connected to so they are carried by the chassis. The planter can also include a pneumatic system carried by the chassis that supplies pressurized air to transport the seeds or other particulate from the storage tanks to the row units.
Each row unit of the agricultural planter places seeds in the field. Typically, the row units are laterally arranged along a length of the tool bar so that as the planter is pulled across the field, each row unit plants seeds at predefined intervals along the path it is pulled across. To plant seeds, the row units perform four main operations as they are pulled: opening a trench in the soil; placing a seed into the formed trench at appropriate intervals; closing the formed trench to put soil on top of the placed seed; and packing soil on top of the seed to provide desirable soil contact with the placed seed. To open a trench in the soil, a furrowing disc system, also called an opening disc, cuts into the soil and rotates, dislocating soil as it rotates to form the trench.
Once the trench is open, a seed is placed in the trench by a metering device which receives seeds from the main storage tank(s) or a row unit storage tank and typically utilizes a combination of differential air pressure, to select the seed, and gravity to place the seed in the trench at predefined intervals along the pulled path so that adjacent seeds in the row are not too close to one another. One or more closing discs carried behind the furrowing disc are pressed into the soil and also rotate as the planter is pulled to replace soil dislocated by the furrowing disc in the trench or dislocate adjacent soil into the trench to cover the seed placed in the trench with soil. Finally, at least one pressing wheel carried behind the closing disc(s) exerts pressure on the soil covering the seed to press the soil down onto the seed and provide good soil contact with the seed. By having multiple row units working in unison as the planter is pulled across a field, many seeds can be effectively planted in an efficient manner.
Since a variety of tractors can couple to a variety of implements, such as a planter, the capabilities of the controls and availability of information relative to the operation of the implement/vehicle system creates a problem of adequate displays of information and presentation of controls to a user.
What is needed in the art is a robust display that presents information and control options pertinent to the selected vehicle and implement.
The present invention provides a user interface that is sensitive to the selection of the towing vehicle and the towed implement.
The invention in one form is directed to an agricultural vehicle system including a vehicle being defined as a vehicle platform, an implement coupled to the vehicle, and a display. The implement is defined as a type of implement. The display is mounted in the vehicle and is configured with a plurality of areas one of which being a Runscreen, displayed thereon with a plurality of User Defined Windows (UDWs). Each UDW occupies at least one of the areas. The plurality of UDWs include a set of defined groups being displayed in selected ones of the areas dependent upon both the vehicle platform and the type of the implement.
The invention in yet another form is directed to a method of displaying information for an agricultural vehicle system having a vehicle that defines a vehicle platform, and an implement coupled to the vehicle, the implement being of one of a defined type of implement. The method includes the steps of dividing a portion of a display area into a plurality of areas; and occupying subsets of the areas with UDWs with each subset of the areas having one UDW associated therewith. The UDWs that are displayed in selected ones of the areas dependent upon both the vehicle platform and the type of the implement.
An advantage of the present invention is that the display areas conform to a matrix set of rules, thereby simplifying the occupying of the areas with UDWs on multiple runscreens.
The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of an embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplification set out herein illustrates one embodiment of the invention, in one form, and such exemplification is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to
Now, additionally referring to
Now, additionally referring to
In
In
In runscreen area 56 the UDWs are selected to be displayed in a contiguous subset of the twelve cells 56A-L of the matrix of runsreen area 56. The full set of areas is illustrated in
In the illustrations of the present invention
In
Runscreen areas 56 is the centerpiece of display 52, taking up most of the area of display 52. This allows direct access to the controls that users need daily in order to efficiently operate the tractor 50/implement 10 combination. The runscreen can have multiple pages, for example 7 pages, and the user can navigate through the pages by swiping the runscreen area 56 or by taping on the page controls in the bottom bar. The runscreen pages come with default UDW configurations for each type of type of vehicle 50 configuration, and each UDW is highly customizable. The UDWs and groups of UDWs can be either predefined by the system or created by the user.
The predefined UDW groups are different for each vehicle 50 and implement 10 type, with the vehicle 50 platform and the implement 10 type defining which UDWs are available to the agricultural system 48, which is dependent upon that unique combination of vehicle 50 and implement 10. The user defined groups of UDWs associated with agricultural system 48 can be created in an edit screen layout mode, and the UDWs can be organized in tabs.
The user can swipe the UDWs to look for information and it is a customizable user experience, where the user can select the group of information which is most important and valuable to that user. Users can set up a dedicated runscreen to any specific feature, for example maps, planting etc. or can divide the runscreen into two (or more) sections so that multiple different setup or status information is displayed on one screen without the need to navigate between screens.
The runscreen area 56 has a layout that follows the following rules:
UDW (User Defined Windows)
Groups of UDWs
While this invention has been described with respect to at least one embodiment, the present invention can be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure. This application is therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention using its general principles. Further, this application is intended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which this invention pertains and which fall within the limits of the appended claims.
