US 11,944,046 B2
Sensing and control of liquid application using an agricultural machine
Grant J. Wonderlich, Milan, IL (US); Kenneth Herrmann, Port Byron, IL (US); Michael C. Steele, Orion, IL (US); Kilian Wolff, Kaiserslautern (DE); and Gerrit Pruessmann, Kaiserslautern (DE)
Assigned to Deere & Company, Moline, IL (US)
Filed by Deere & Company, Moline, IL (US)
Filed on Aug. 3, 2018, as Appl. No. 16/054,182.
Prior Publication US 2020/0037519 A1, Feb. 6, 2020
Int. Cl. A01G 25/16 (2006.01); B05B 1/08 (2006.01); B05B 9/04 (2006.01); B05B 9/06 (2006.01); B05B 12/08 (2006.01)
CPC A01G 25/165 (2013.01) [B05B 1/08 (2013.01); B05B 9/0423 (2013.01); B05B 9/06 (2013.01); B05B 12/085 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An agricultural machine, comprising:
a liquid reservoir that stores liquid to be applied to a field over which the agricultural machine is traveling;
a supply line that defines a supply conduit;
a plurality of valves disposed along the supply line, each valve having an inlet end and an outlet end and being controlled to pulse between an open position and a closed position by a pulsed control signal;
a pump system that pumps the liquid from the liquid reservoir along the supply line to the inlet ends of the plurality of valves;
a plurality of nozzles, at least one nozzle corresponding to each valve so that when the corresponding valve is open, the liquid flows through the valve to the corresponding nozzle;
a plurality of row pressure sensors each sensing pressure at the outlet end of one of the plurality of valves and generating a corresponding row pressure signal indicative of the sensed pressure;
pulse characteristic sensing logic that receives the row pressure signal from each row pressure sensor and identifies a pulse characteristic indicative of a liquid pulse provided by the corresponding valve in the open position, based on the row pressure signal, and generates a valve pulse characteristic signal indicative of the pulse characteristic;
a pulsed valve control signal generator that generates the pulsed control signal based on the valve pulse characteristic signal;
time delay logic configured to:
receive the pulsed control signal and the valve pulse characteristic signal;
identify an open time delay between the pulsed control signal generating a valve open signal controlling the valve to open and the valve pulse characteristic signal indicating that the valve is in the open position; and
identify a close time delay between the pulsed control signal generating a valve close signal controlling the valve to close and the valve pulse characteristic signal indicating that the valve is in the closed position; and
seed/chemical correlation logic configured to identify plant locations in die field and control timing of the pulsed control signal based on the identified plant locations, the seed/chemical correlation logic comprising:
a pulse frequency controller configured to generate a pulse frequency control signal to control a frequency of the pulsed control signal based on the plant locations in the field the open time delay and the close time delay.