초록 ▼

A yield monitor system for determining quantity of harvested sugar cane on a sugar cane harvesting vehicle is disclosed. The vehicle has a harvesting mechanism including a base cutter assembly for severing sugar cane from a field, a chopper assembly for chopping the severed sugar cane into billets,

A yield monitor system for determining quantity of harvested sugar cane on a sugar cane harvesting vehicle is disclosed. The vehicle has a harvesting mechanism including a base cutter assembly for severing sugar cane from a field, a chopper assembly for chopping the severed sugar cane into billets, and an elevating assembly for elevating the billets during transport to a storage device, the elevating assembly having an elevator motor coupled to a pressurized hydraulic fluid source. The yield monitor system includes a sensing assembly and a control monitor. The sensing assembly generates a sensed signal representative of a quantity of harvested sugar cane being transported to the storage device. The control monitor receives the sensed signal and determines the quantity of harvested sugar cane therefrom. The sensing assembly includes an elevator pressure sensor coupled to the elevator motor for generating the sensed signal in response to the hydraulic pressure applied to the elevator motor, an elevator driveshaft torque sensor, or a deflection plate sensor impacted by the harvested billets. The system includes a positioning system, and is capable of generating site-specific sugar cane yield maps. The system can also detect areas of the field where no sugar cane is growing based upon pressure signals from a base cutter pressure sensor.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. On a harvesting vehicle with a harvesting mechanism including a cutting assembly for severing non-bulk crop such as sugar cane from an agricultural field and a conveyor for conveying the severed crop to a storage device, a yield monitor system for determining quantity o

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. On a harvesting vehicle with a harvesting mechanism including a cutting assembly for severing non-bulk crop such as sugar cane from an agricultural field and a conveyor for conveying the severed crop to a storage device, a yield monitor system for determining quantity of harvested crop, comprising:a deflection plate sensor including a deflection plate and a load sensor coupled to the deflection plate, wherein the deflection plate is located proximate to the conveyor such that the severed non-bulk crop impinges on the deflection plate to exert a force on the deflection plate and the load sensor is configured to generate a load signal in response to the force exerted on the deflection plate; anda control monitor coupled to the deflection plate sensor, the control monitor configured to receive the load signal from the load sensor and to determine the quantity of harvested non-bulk crop therefrom, wherein the conveyor is an elevator having a crop discharge area, the deflection plate is mounted proximate to the crop discharge area, and the severed non-bulk crop impinges upon the deflection plate after discharge through the crop discharge area to fall on the deflection plate wherein the deflection plate sensor includes a shaft rotatably mounted to the elevator, the deflection plate is rigidly attached to the rotatable shaft to apply a torque to the rotatable shaft when the severed non-bulk crop impinges upon the deflection plate, and the load sensor generates the load signal in response to the torque applied to the rotatable shaft.