Crop yield monitoring system

摘要

A peanut combine towed and powered by a tractor during harvesting includes a collection basket having a basket support frame mounted on the top of the combine by four load cells. A respective load cell is located beneath each lower bottom corner of the base of the collection basket between the support frame and a support member, such as a steel support channel, fastened on the top of the combine. The load cells produce analog data signals representative of weight of the collection basket at any given instance as the crop is harvested. The load cells transmit data analog signals to a data acquisition system (DAS) via a summing device and anti-aliasing filter. The DAS includes a CPU and an analog to digital converter to convert the analog load cell data to digital signals and digitally filters the digital signal to reduce signal noise resulting from harmonic vibrations of the combine straw walker mechanism for further processing. The CPU is interfaced with a global positioning device that provides time, latitude and longitude information of the combine to the CPU and also with a sensor that inputs tractor/combine information to the CPU from which combine speed can be determined. An interface device is provided on the tractor and interfaces to the CPU for providing signals representative of the number of rows harvested (row counter) to the CPU as input by the tractor operator. The CPU includes software for determining the instantaneous crop yield, yield rate, and area harvested as a crop field is being harvested for display to the tractor operator.