Deere + Company

David S Mercer

Richard Allen Humpal

Scott Adam Stephens

Travis Gene Funseth

Dolly Y Wu

Chad A Ackerman

Mark A Harris

Richard A Humpal

Travis G Funseth

An agricultural machine includes a source of a substance to be applied to an agricultural field and a substance outlet through which the substance is configured to pass to be applied to the field. The agricultural machine further includes a controllable piezo-actuated valve and a control signal generator configured to generate a valve control signal. The piezo-actuated valve includes a valve inlet configured to be in fluidic communication with the source of substance to be applied to the field and a valve outlet through which the substance to be applied to the field passes to move through the piezo-actuated valve. The piezo-actuated valve further includes a piezo element configured to move in response to the valve control signal and a flexure, coupled to the piezo element, and configured to amplify the movement of the piezo element to provide a valve driving movement.

Piezo actuated nozzle control valve

A mobile agricultural application machine includes a controllable valve and nozzle through which a substance is applied to an agricultural field. The controllable valve is a piezo-actuated valve. An application control system generates valve control signals to control a piezo actuator on the piezo-actuated valve.

A scouting system can include an autonomous ground vehicle having a perception sensor and a motion sensor to construct an occupancy grid referenced to a coordinate system of the autonomous ground vehicle. The autonomous ground vehicle is configured to use information from the occupancy grid to detect crop rows in a crop field. The autonomous ground vehicle is configured to identify and classify one or more non-crop plant in-lier objects arranged within the crop rows and generate an output signal received by an external vehicle to cause the external vehicle to perform a task when the one or more non-crop plant in-lier objects are identified within the crop rows.

Scouting systems

Embodiments include a ground scout having an ability to identify the location of rows of crops and the end of the rows so that it can navigate, but in other embodiments, the ground scout can also rely more on an aerial drone to navigate, to act as a communication relay system, and so on. A buddy system including a ground scout and an air scout (e.g. drone) communicate their findings with each other.

An agricultural sprayer includes a spray boom equipped with a plurality of spray heads, with each head having a body defining a cavity located in fluid communication with a fluid inlet and an array of four outlets leading to four nozzles respectively having different flow rates. A nozzle-select control member is mounted for rotation in the cavity and includes a fluid passage arrangement for establishing fluid connections between the inlet and different ones or combinations of the four nozzles as the control member is rotated among preselected discrete positions by an electric stepper motor, with the stepper motor being controlled in response to vehicle speed so that the spray tip capacity decreases for effecting a constant application rate as the vehicle speed decreases from a maximum permitted speed.

Arrangement for switching nozzles on the go for controlling spray rate

An agricultural sprayer spray head is adapted for being mounted to a spray boom together with a plurality of like, equally spaced spray heads. Each spray head includes a body containing a flow control member mounted for rotation about an axis and including a fluid control passage arrangement located for effecting an intermittent connection between a fluid inlet leading to, and an outlet leading from the body as the control member is oscillated or rotated by a powered motor so as to effect a pulsing flow through said control passage arrangement. The powered motor operates at a speed controlled by various input parameters including vehicle speed and field and crop conditions so as to maintain a desired spray application rate.

Growing community of inventors

W. Des Moines, IA, United States of America

David S Mercer