The present disclosure relates generally to agricultural systems and methods, and more particularly to systems and methods for supplying or delivering products to agricultural implements.
Generally, agricultural implements (e.g., planters, sprayers, harvesters, etc.) are configured to distribute agricultural product (e.g., seeds, fertilizer) across a field. The agricultural implement may improve crop yield and/or farming efficiency by increasing speed at which the product is distributed across the field and/or providing an even distribution of the product across the field. Traditional product supply systems for agricultural implements may include a specialized seed cart or a nurse tanker that resupplies a particular type of product to the agricultural implement. For example, a seed contained in a bulk storage container of a seed cart may be dispensed (e.g., via an auger) to resupply a container of a planter, while a liquid fertilizer contained in a bulk storage container of a nurse tanker may be dispensed (e.g., via tubing) to resupply a container of a sprayer. Unfortunately, the variety of equipment and methods used to resupply the agricultural implements used in the field may result in reduced farming efficiency, increased complexity, and/or increased costs.
Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimed invention are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention, but rather these embodiments are intended only to provide a brief summary of possible forms of the invention. Indeed, the invention may encompass a variety of forms that may be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below.
In one embodiment, a product supply system includes a plurality of containers. A first container of the plurality of containers houses a first product and a second container of the plurality of containers houses a second product, the first product and the second product are different types of products, and the first container and the second container are standardized containers having the same size and shape. The product supply system also includes a first agricultural implement configured to receive the first container and to use the first product and a second agricultural implement configured to receive the second container and to use the second product. The first agricultural implement and the second agricultural implement are different types of agricultural implements.
In one embodiment, a product supply system includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to receive a first input indicative of a request to transfer a first product of the plurality of products to a first agricultural implement of the one or more of agricultural implements, to identify a first container of a plurality of containers that houses the first product, and to generate a first output that facilitates transfer of the first container to the first agricultural implement.
In one embodiment, a product supply system includes a plurality of containers configured to store a plurality of different products. Each of the plurality of containers is configured to be removably mounted to one or more agricultural implements to enable the one or more agricultural implements to use the plurality of products stored within the plurality of containers. The product supply system also includes a delivery vehicle configured to support the plurality of containers and to facilitate transfer of the plurality of containers to the one or more agricultural implements
In one embodiment, a method of supplying a plurality of products to one or more agricultural implements includes receiving, at a controller, a first input indicative of a request to transfer a first product of the plurality of products to a first agricultural implement of the one or more of agricultural implements. The method includes identifying, using the controller, a first container of a plurality of containers that houses the first product. The method also includes generating, using the controller, a first output that facilitates transfer of the first container to the first agricultural implement.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:
One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Any examples of operating parameters and/or environmental conditions are not exclusive of other parameters/conditions of the disclosed embodiments.
The agricultural implement 12 is configured to receive (e.g., removably receive) one or more containers 20. For example, as shown, the agricultural implement 12 may include a surface 26 configured to support one or more containers 20. When the containers 20 are positioned on the surface 26, an outlet of the container 20 may align with an inlet of the agricultural implement 12 to enable the product to be used (e.g., directly from the container 20) by the agricultural implement 12 (e.g., applied to the field or used to fuel the agricultural implement 12 while the container 20 is mounted to the agricultural implement 12). In certain embodiments, the system 10 includes multiple agricultural implements 12 that are different from one another. For example, a first agricultural implement 12 may be a sprayer and a second agricultural implement 12 may be a planter. The system 10 may include any suitable number (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, or more) of agricultural implements 12 of one or more types (e.g., sprayer, planter, harvester, etc.).
The delivery vehicle 14 may be configured to support any suitable number (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, or more) of containers 20. Each of the containers 20 may house one or more products, and the multiple containers 20 may house different products. For example, a first container 20, 28 may house fertilizer (e.g., liquid or granular), a second container 20, 30 may house seed, and a third container 20, 32 may house fuel. As discussed in more detail below, the delivery vehicle 18 may include a controller that is configured to receive inputs and to provide outputs to facilitate transfer of an appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12. For example, in some embodiments, the controller may receive an input indicative of a desired product for the agricultural vehicle 12, the controller may identify an appropriate container 20 that houses the desired product, and the controller may provide an indication of a location of the appropriate container 20 on a display and/or control the arm 22 to engage and to transfer the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12.
Each container 20 in the system 10 may include a display 42 (e.g., an electronic paper display or other bistable display) that is configured to display information about the container 20, such as a type of product within the container 20, compatible agricultural implement(s) 12, or the like. Additionally or alternatively, each container 20 may include an identification tag 44 (e.g., radio-frequency identification [RFID] tag) that is configured to provide the information about the container 20.
The first agricultural implement 12, 50 may be configured to use (e.g., apply to a field) a first product (e.g., fertilizer), and the second agricultural implement 12, 52 may be configured to use (e.g., apply to a field) a second product (e.g., seeds) that is different from the first product. The delivery vehicle 14 may support multiple containers 20 supporting multiple different types of product (e.g., fertilizer, seeds, fuel, etc.). Accordingly, in some embodiments, the system 10 may include a control system 58 to facilitate transfer of an appropriate container 20 (e.g., housing the appropriate or desired product) from the delivery vehicle 14 to each of the agricultural implements 12. Such a configuration may enable efficient supply (e.g., resupply) of various products to multiple agricultural implements 12 in a field.
With the foregoing in mind, in certain embodiments, the control system 58 may include one or more controllers (e.g., electronic controllers). For example, in certain embodiments, the delivery vehicle 14 may include a controller 60 having a processor 62 and a memory device 64. In certain embodiments, each of the agricultural implements 12 may include a controller 70 having a processor 72 and a memory device 74. In certain embodiments, the control system 58 may include communications devices 66, 76 (e.g., transceivers) that are configured to enable communication between the delivery vehicle 14 and the agricultural implements 12, for example. In certain embodiments, the control system 58 may include one or more displays 68, 78 that are configured to provide information for visualization by an operator.
In operation, the controller 60 associated with the delivery vehicle 14 may be configured to receive an input indicative of request to transfer a product (e.g., a desired or requested product) to one of the agricultural implements 12. In some embodiments, the input may be provided by an operator in the delivery vehicle 14 (e.g., via the display 68 or other user interface). In some embodiments, the input may be provided by an operator in the agricultural implement 12 (e.g., via the display 78 or other user interface) and transmitted (e.g., wirelessly) to the controller 60 of the delivery vehicle 14 via the communication devices 66, 76. The input may be provided in any suitable manner, such as via an operator input at a remote base station (e.g., remote from the system 10) or via an automated signal output from the controller 70 of the agricultural implement 12 in response to product depletion, for example.
The controller 60 may be configured to process the input and to identify and/or to locate an appropriate container 20 that houses the requested product. In some embodiments, the controller 60 may access data stored in the memory device 64 to facilitate locating the appropriate container 20. For example, as the containers 20 are loaded onto the delivery vehicle 14, information about each container 20 may be stored in the memory device 64 (e.g., manually by the operator or automatically via reading the display 42 or the identification tag 44). The data may include the product within the container 20, the exact (e.g., based on a relative coordinate system of the delivery vehicle 14) or approximate (e.g., based on general regions of the delivery vehicle 14, such as forward region, rearward region, top row, bottom row, etc.) location of the container 20 on the delivery vehicle 14, and/or characteristics of the container 20 (e.g., size, weight, or the like).
Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the controller 60 may be configured to control a scanner 65 (e.g., reader, camera, or the like) to read the display 42 and/or the identification tag 44 on each container 20 supported on the delivery vehicle 14 until the appropriate container 20 is identified. In some embodiments, the scanner 65 may be supported on the arm 22, although in other embodiments, the scanner 65 may be supported on a separate movable component. In some embodiments, the scanner 65 may be used in conjunction with the data accessed from the memory device 64 to confirm the identification of the appropriate container 20.
In some embodiments, the controller 60 may be configured to provide the data accessed from the memory device 64 and/or the information obtained from the display 42 and/or the identification tag 44 on a display (e.g., the display 68 and/or the display 78), which may enable the operator to control (e.g., via inputs to the controller 70) the arm 22 to move toward, to engage, and/or to transfer the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12. In some embodiments, the controller 60 may be configured to, based on the data and/or the information, to automatically control the arm 22 to move toward, to engage, and/or to transfer the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12. In some embodiments, the controller 60 may be configured to access the data and to automatically control the arm 22 to move toward and/or to engage the appropriate container 20, and the operator may then manually control the arm 22 to transfer the engaged container 20 to the agricultural implement 20. It should be understood that the arm 22 may be controlled automatically (e.g., by the controller 60) and/or manually (e.g., via inputs by the operator) at any of the various stages of the process for identifying, locating, engaging, and/or transferring the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12.
In operation, the controller 60 may be configured to provide various indications related to the containers 20, the delivery vehicle 14, and/or the supply process to the operator (e.g., via the display 68 or the display 78). The various indications may include an indication of the products available in the containers 20 that are currently mounted on the delivery vehicle 14, a number of containers 20 housing each of the various types of products, a location of each container on the delivery vehicle 14 (e.g., via a table or a graph), a position of the arm 22 and/or the scanner 65, the information obtained from the display 42 or the RFID tag 44, the currently desired product (e.g., the input), or any combination thereof. The various indications may further include an indication that the appropriate container 20 has been identified, that the appropriate container 20 has been successfully engaged by the arm 22, that the appropriate container 20 has been successfully transferred to the agricultural implement 12, or any combination thereof.
In certain embodiments, the controller 60 is configured to track (e.g., with the scanner 65) and/or to store the information related to each of the containers 20 loaded onto the delivery vehicle 14 and/or the information related to each of the containers 20 removed from the delivery vehicle 14. Thus, the controller 60 may be configured to store and/or to update the data (e.g., in the memory device 64) related to the containers 20 that are currently on the delivery vehicle 14, movement of the containers 20, current locations of the containers 20 (e.g., on a particular agricultural implement 12), or the like. The controller 60 may also be configured to provide this information to the operator (e.g., via the display 68, 78). In some embodiments, the controller 60 may be configured to provide an indication (e.g., an alarm or an error message via the display 68, 78) based on the data. For example, the controller 60 may provide an indication in response to the input if none of the containers 20 on the delivery vehicle 14 house the desired product.
The controllers 60, 70 disclosed herein are electronic controllers having processors 62, 72 and memory devices 64, 74. The controllers 60, 70 may also include one or more storage devices and/or other suitable components. The processors 62, 72 may be used to execute software, such as software for operating the arm 22 to engage and/or to transfer the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12, operating the scanner 65 to read the display 42 and/or identification tag 44, providing indications, and so forth. Moreover, the processors 62, 72 may include multiple microprocessors, one or more “general-purpose” microprocessors, one or more special-purpose microprocessors, and/or one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICS), or some combination thereof. For example, the processors 62, 72 may include one or more reduced instruction set (RISC) processors.
The memory devices 64, 74 may include a volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM), and/or a nonvolatile memory, such as ROM. The memory devices 64, 74 may store a variety of information and may be used for various purposes. For example, the memory devices 64, 74 may store processor-executable instructions (e.g., firmware or software) for the processors 62, 72 to execute, such as instructions for operating the arm 22 to engage and/or to transfer the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12, operating the scanner 65 to read the display 42 and/or identification tag 44, providing indications, and so forth. The storage device(s) (e.g., nonvolatile storage) may include read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, a hard drive, or any other suitable optical, magnetic, or solid-state storage medium, or a combination thereof. The storage device(s) may store data (e.g., characteristics of the containers 20, respective locations of the containers 20 on the delivery vehicle 14, a number of containers 20 on the delivery vehicle 14, current availability of products on the delivery vehicle 14, etc.), instructions (e.g., software or firmware for operating the arm 22 to engage and/or to transfer the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12, operating the scanner 65 to read the display 42 and/or identification tag 44, providing indications, and so forth), and any other suitable data.
In step 102, the controller 60 may receive an input indicative of a request to transfer a product to an agricultural implement 12. As discussed above, the input may be provided by an operator in the delivery vehicle 14 (e.g., via the display 68 or other user interface). In some embodiments, the input may be provided by an operator in the agricultural implement 12 (e.g., via the display 78 or other user interface) and transmitted (e.g., wirelessly) to the controller 60 of the delivery vehicle 14 via the communication devices 66, 76. The input may be provided in any suitable manner, such as via an operator input at a remote base station (e.g., remote from the system 10) or via an automated signal output from the controller 70 of the agricultural implement 12 in response to product depletion, for example.
In step 104, the controller 60 may identify the container 20 that houses the requested product. As discussed above, the controller 60 may access data stored in the memory device 64 to facilitate locating the appropriate container 20. Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the controller 60 may be configured to control the scanner 65 to read the display 42 and/or the identification tag 44 on each container 20 supported on the delivery vehicle 14 until the appropriate container 20 is identified.
In step 106, the controller 60 may generate an output that facilitates transfer of the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12. In some embodiments, the controller 60 may be configured to cause display (e.g., on the display 68 and/or the display 78) of the data accessed from the memory device 64 and/or obtained via the scanner 65, which may enable the operator to control (e.g., via inputs to the controller 70) the arm 22 to move toward, to engage, and/or to transfer the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12. In some embodiments, the controller 60 may be configured to, based on the data and/or based on the data obtained via the scanner 65, to automatically control the arm 22 to move toward, to engage, and/or to transfer the appropriate container 20 to the agricultural implement 12.
It should be understood that, in some embodiments, the controller 60 may provide information and/or various indications related to the containers 20, the delivery vehicle 14, the agricultural implements 12, and/or the method 100 to the operator (e.g., via the display 68 or the display 78). The steps 102-16 may be repeated to provide another product (e.g., a different type of product) to another agricultural implement (e.g., a different type of agricultural implement 12).
While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.
This application claims priority from and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/340,813, entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SUPPLYING PRODUCTS TO AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS”, filed May 24, 2016, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US17/34295 | 5/24/2017 | WO | 00 |