For many years, agricultural equipment, sometimes denoted herein by the abbreviation AE, and the individual agricultural machines of such agricultural equipment, have been operated under control of an operator thereof to perform various operations or actions, including, among other things, the harvesting of crops and the transport thereof. The performance by such agricultural equipment of the various actions has sometimes been based upon various data relating, among other things, to the individual machine being operated as well as to crop type, weather conditions, topographical conditions, and the position of the individual machine in the field from which the crop is being harvested or relative to other agricultural equipment. In addition, the status of such agricultural equipment or features or components thereof, such as, for example, the fill status of a grain bin of a combine harvester and the position of the combine harvester in a field being harvested, the load status of a crop transport and its position, especially relative to combine harvesters in a field, and the load status of a semi-trailer transporter and its location, particularly relative to the crop transports, has been considered pertinent information, which, when it can be properly shared amongst the relevant agricultural equipment, has been beneficial in the interplay and interaction of such relevant agricultural equipment as they perform a particular agricultural operation, such as the harvesting of a crop in a field and the transport of the harvested crop to storage.
In more recent years, sensors and processing devices and systems of various types have been employed to assist in the control and operation of the individual agricultural machines, and positioning systems of various designs have been developed to permit an accurate indication of the position of the individual machine within a field to be readily determined. Such sensors, processing devices, and systems have allowed equipment operators to be able to relatively quickly and easily determine the status of the equipment that they are operating at any given times, and to make use of that status information to coordinate activities with other agricultural equipment.
In part, to facilitate the coordination of activities between and among various individual pieces or machines of agricultural equipment, communications systems and devices of various types and constructions have been developed and installed on or in the individual agricultural machines so as to allow communications therebetween by the operators thereof and, in more recent years, even the communication or exchange of various data between two individual agricultural machines, typically by RF wireless communications.
In earlier systems, voice communications allowed the operator of a first individual agricultural machine to establish a communications link with and to orally communicate information, including machine location and operating information and status, to the operator of a second agricultural machine, including a different type of agricultural machine, thereby allowing the operator of the second agricultural machine to make adjustments in the operation of his or her individual machine as conditions might warrant. When the communications were between different types of agricultural machines, such as between a combine harvester and a crop transport vehicle, such communication was often intended to permit the navigation of the second agricultural machine to join or intercept the first agricultural machine, such as for the transfer of a harvested crop from the first to the second agricultural machine.
More recently, in some instances and with some communications systems, the machine operator of a combine harvester has been able to establish a communications link with and to provide data in an electronic form to a different operator or to the control system associated with the different agricultural machine, such as a crop transport vehicle, in order to permit coordination of crop transfer to the crop transport vehicle and, in some cases, to even remotely exercise some control over such crop transport vehicle, such as steerage of the crop transport vehicle to meet the combine harvester at the combine harvester's position in a field, and the scheduling of the time and location for the combine harvester and the crop transport vehicle to meet.
In other instances and with other systems, the machine operator of a crop transport vehicle has been able to receive on individual bases electronic data from one or more combine harvesters to permit the control system associated with the crop transport vehicle to coordinate the scheduling of positionings of the crop transport vehicle relative to the crop harvesters and the automated steerage of the crop transport vehicle to meet the combine harvesters at the combine harvesters' positions in a field so that coordinated transfers of the harvested crop from the combine harvesters to the crop transport vehicle can be effected.
For the most part, the electronic data so provided or received has related to the location and relative positionings of the combine harvesters and transport vehicles, with, in some instances, an operator of the combine harvester or the crop transport vehicle having the further ability to act as a master and to remotely control to some extent the navigation and/or steerage of others of the agricultural vehicles as slave vehicles in order to effect interceptions therebetween for the transfer of harvested crop from the combine harvesters to the transport vehicles.
In other instances, the electronic data has been communicated on individual bases by the individual agricultural machines to a control location distinct from both the combine harvesters and the transport vehicles, and remote operation of the combine harvesters and crop transport vehicles has been effected on individual bases from such distinct, and often significantly distanced, location.
In some situations, the control system of a slave vehicle has been so designed that, instead of, or in addition to, facilitating the steerage or navigation of the slave vehicle to effect an intercept with a master vehicle, the slave vehicle is controlled to follow, or to remain at a relatively fixed distance from, the master vehicle, based upon a continuing communication of the positioning and location information between or regarding the master and slave vehicles.
In such regards, many of the noted systems have utilized wireless RF broadcasts of the data of interest, which broadcast data has been utilized, upon receipt by another agricultural machine or a control location, for coordinating a meeting place for certain of the agricultural machines. In the real world, however, the unfettered broadcast, especially at RF frequencies and when over longer distances, of electronic data, and the actions by receptor agricultural equipment in responding to the receipt of such broadcast data and making use thereof, poses difficulties, especially when other, often similar agricultural equipment, perhaps engaged in harvesting a crop of a different type or under different ownership, is operating in adjacent or nearby fields or within the broadcast range of the electronic data that is so broadcast, is problemsome. If such other equipment is similarly broadcasting information pertinent to the particular operations that other equipment is engaged in, confusion, including as to which information is intended for which equipment groupings, may result.
The problem is exacerbated as more agricultural equipment and equipment groupings are within range of the RF broadcasts, especially if all such equipment of each of the equipment groupings is transmitting and receiving information, but with some portion of the information total intended for one agricultural grouping while other portions of the information total are intended for a second or third or fourth agricultural equipment grouping within the overlapping broadcast ranges of the individual agricultural machines. As will be appreciated, the wider the broadcast ranges of such systems and the greater the amount of information communicated thereover, the greater the probability of encountering problems.
Additionally, for the most part, even when such systems have been employed, the operator of the harvester has remained responsible for manually commencing the actual unloading operation once the harvester and transport are properly positioned for unloading and for then monitoring and manually controlling the unloading. In some instances, certain sensors and monitors of various types have been operable to detect conditions that might be considered problemsome for continued unloading and to provide indications to the operator so that appropriate actions could then be taken by such operator, such as a re-positioning of the discharge arm of the harvester or even discontinuation of the unloading operation. With certain systems, some minor adjustments to the positioning of the discharge arm, within certain limits, may even have been effectable without operator intervention, but, for the most part, close and continuing operator attention and intervention, especially in the event of undesirable conditions and to effect commencement and termination of unloading operations, has remained a necessity. Such necessity for close and continuing operator attention poses difficulties for an operator when unloading is occurring on-the-go since the operator may also be attempting to monitor and control other events at such time, including the continuing harvesting operation.
Consequently, users of agricultural equipment have continued to seek simple and reliable systems and methods for coordinating unloading operations between a harvester and a grain transport and for communicating and exchanging information therebetween during unloading operations, and for doing so in such a way and in such an environment that such coordinated actions require minimal operator attention and continuing involvement by such operator and do not result in a widespread broadcast or dissemination of information to other non-involved or extraneous agricultural equipment.