Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Construction or agricultural-type vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-22
2001-08-28
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Construction or agricultural-type vehicle
C701S029000, C701S030000, C702S185000, C340S684000, C340S870160, C345S111000, C345S111000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06282476
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to an agricultural machine, in particular a combine harvester and thresher, which is comprised of component devices with associated microprocessors, of which at least one is a control station processor with a control keypad and a screen, which microprocessors are connected to measurement, actuation, and/or display members of the respective component devices and regarding this, process data which comes up in the component device in a controlling and/or regulating manner, or in a manner which displays it; these microprocessors are connected to one another by a communications bus via conventional interface circuits and via these circuits, in accordance with a protocol, continuously transmit actual operating data which is relevant for each other, such as rpm, speed, time, etc., together with an identifier, which is specific to the operating data.
Gottschalk discloses a device of this kind in his article “Trouble Shooting” in the periodical [Z:] Landtechnik 47, pp. 71-vol. 74, 1992. A plurality of microprocessors are connected to communicate by means of a standard CAN-communications bus and are connected to measuring and actuating members of component devices, namely an engine, running gear, work unit, and a display device, as well as to a diagnostic processor, and process their data for controlling and regulating the subdomain functions, and exchange it on a priority basis and employ it diagnostically.
It is provided that the individual component devices, as needed, are each consulted for actual operating data such as rpm, speed, time, etc. by another respective, relevant component device. The transmission of data is carried out in accordance with a standard protocol, by means of conventional interface circuits, which also furnish a single-lead emergency operation instead of the usual dual-lead operation. In complex agricultural machines, in particular combine harvester and threshers, this type of on-demand data polling from the other component devices requires an extensive expenditure for enciphering and deciphering, which can lead to extended queuing and long message processing times in the processors, and under some circumstances to inadmissible down times of the actuating and regulating devices and to malfunctioning of the same.
Furthermore, DE 37 08 324 A1 discloses a microprocessor-controlled information device of an agricultural machine, which shows wiring data and operating data, which are each specified and determined actually by measurement; the terms displayed are taken from a speech vocabulary memory, which is consulted each time. A specification or selection of operation adjustment data and parts of the operating program is carried out with dialogue support via a numeric keypad and different control keys or buttons. The perception of spoken information during continuous operation demands an increased concentration and attentiveness of the operator, which thus takes away from his observation of the machine and path of travel.
Furthermore, the Philips data sheet 82C200, Preliminary Functional Description, pp. 4-7, discloses a bus interface component, which includes an acceptance filter subassembly, with which the identifiers are compared one after the other, whereupon only the messages whose identifiers correspond to one of the ones stored in memory are transmitted to the affiliated microprocessor. The times for the successively carried out comparisons are relatively high depending on the identifier number, and messages which have arrived in the meantime under some circumstances are not received and are lost, unless a higher-priority software organization sees to it that additional monitoring and rerequesting of the transmission of the same message is carried out. This means further time delays, so that in practical applications of agricultural machine technology, real-time communication was possible only if no more than a very low number of message types was exchanged.
It is the object of the invention to increase the capacity of the agricultural machine mentioned at the beginning, in particular of its master unit, to communicate between the processors and with the operator, while at the same time placing less of a physical demand upon the operator.
The embodiment is comprised in that in the individual microprocessors, by means of the respective identifier received, a key marker field is accessed in which the key markers of such operating data types, which are to be received in the appropriate microprocessor, are stored in memory, and whenever a key marker is found there, the relevant identifier, as well as the transmitted operating data affiliated with it, is received, stored, and processed, and in that in the control station processor, depending on its respective dialogue state, which is achieved according to the program by means of an operation of the control keypad and/or a selector switch with numerous switch positions, the operating data continually received in the control station processor, is transformed into analog pictograms, numeric depictions, and/or textual representations, each depending upon its identifier, and is adjusted by updating in at least one display field of a screen mask, which is associated with the respective dialogue state, is stored and thus a continually updated display or picture memory content is represented on the screen.
In an advantageous embodiment, the novel type of acceptance filtration requires only one memory access to the key marker field, which is laid out as a table in which the key markers of the permissible indicators are stored in memory as bits. If the table has a two-dimensional, byte-based configuration with 2048 bits for memory space reasons, then for an identifier test, an addressing of the table with an eight-bit address length and an access with three bits to a deciphering table for transformation from three-bit to one-out-of-eight is required, as well as a comparison operation of both results. These three operation steps are carried out parallel to further message reception so that after the completion of the message in the receiving buffer, if the buffered message is definitely intended for the microprocessor, it is taken practically without delay, hence in real time, and can be immediately processed.
As a result, it is possible to realize an instrumentation on the processor-controlled screen, with a display of actual operating data. A particular advantage is that the instrumentation depicted is adapted to each type of operation; but a similar basic structure of the display mask always remains, so that the operator has to do as little transforming mental work as possible, and a fixed place association is maintained by the screen for appointed operating states, which aids in safety.
By means of the high transmission capacity, it is also possible to communicate to the operator and insert onto the screen priority alarms and urgent bulletins, only the actual. information, which must be reacted to is in the operator's field of vision; the monitoring of the individual, critical components takes place automatically and is not displayed. The only data depicted on the screen visible in the cab is that which has to be influenced by the operator, depending upon the terrain and crop state. This data is the speed, the direction of travel and with it, the cutting width, the cutting unit height, and cutting unit pitch. All the functions mentioned are controlled in one-handed operation on the control stick, which is equipped with four buttons for cutting unit adjustment. The execution of control takes place by means of set-point value specifications, which are continually transmitted to the appropriate processors. To simplify the cutting unit adjustment, a particular program is provided, which makes possible the immediate selection of stored set-point values and of various regulating programs by means of the control stick buttons, but also achieves a change of the set-point values when necessary.
In an advantageous embodiment, it is provided that apart from or instead of via a menu preselectio
Behnke Wille
Diekhans Norbert
Hieronymus Peter
Browdy and Neimark
Claas OHG
Cuchlinski, Jr. William A
To Tuan C
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