A biomass impact sensor for sensing impacts of biomass material may include a pressure sensitive film having a first sensing face and a second opposite face, a first layer of a first material composition directly abutting the first sensing face having a first stiffness, and a second layer of a second material composition directly abutting the second opposite face. The first layer and the second layer may be joined along opposite edges of the pressure sensitive film to envelope the sensing material layer on the opposite edges.

A sensor system for determining crop yield. The sensor system comprises a mounting structure mounted to a housing of a grain elevator of an agricultural work machine and has at least one aperture formed therein. A fulcrum assembly is arranged on the mounting structure. A rocker arm is pivotal about a pivot axis of the fulcrum assembly and extends between a first end and a second end. An engagement member is coupled to the second end of the rocker arm and extends through the at least one aperture of the mounting structure. At least one gap distance sensor is mounted to the fulcrum assembly and is configured to detect an inclination of the rocker arm relative to the fulcrum assembly. A processing device is coupled to the gap distance sensor and is configured to correlate the detected inclination of the rocker arm to an applied force.

A harvesting method includes the steps of operating a moveable harvesting machine in one or more fields to harvest plant matter and produce a secondarily processable harvest product for subsequent processing using secondary processing machinery; and while operating the harvesting machine to produce the secondarily processable harvest product, recording data that includes information on one or more characteristics of the secondarily processable harvest product. The method further includes transferring the recorded data from the harvesting machine to an external data store; causing moveable secondary processing machinery to retrieve at least some data on the secondarily processable harvest product from the data store; and controlling one or more controllable parameters of the secondary processing machinery based on the retrieved data during operation of the secondary processing machinery to process the secondarily processable harvest product.

A combine harvester includes threshing apparatus, separating apparatus, a grain cleaning system located downstream of the separating apparatus, and a material conveyance system arranged to convey crop material from the separating apparatus to the grain cleaning system. The grain cleaning system includes screening apparatus, a fan arranged to generate a cleaning airstream through the screening apparatus, and a fan control system configured to control a fan speed. The fan control system includes a proximity sensor mounted above the material conveyance system for sensing a material volume. The fan control system controls the fan speed in dependence upon the material volume.

A method of determining a mass flow rate, volumetric flow and test weight of grain during harvesting operations. A sensor is disposed in the harvesting machine against which clean grain piles are thrown by the clean grain elevator flights. The sensor changes the direction of the clean grain pile such that each clean grain pile compresses into a substantially discrete, contiguous shape producing discrete grain forces resulting in discrete signal pulse magnitudes generated by the sensor. The mass flow rate is calculated by summing the signal magnitudes and dividing the summed magnitudes by the sampling period. The volumetric flow rate is calculated by multiplying the pulse width generated by the sensor by a multiplier which relates pulse width to volumetric flow. The test weight of the clean grain is calculated by dividing the mass flow rate by the volumetric flow rate.

A first sensor combined to a first storage carrier for the material for detecting vibrations associated with offloading the material and a second sensor for measuring the weight of the material expelled from the first storage carrier.

A harvester may include a grain processing unit and a material flow sensor to form an yes electromagnetic plane or field through which crop material passes while being sensed.

A field map generating system includes: a crop data obtaining unit that obtains crop data over time; a position information obtaining unit that obtains position information, indicating a harvesting position of the crop, over time; polygon constructing units that construct a polygon on the basis of a work width and speed of a harvester, for each piece of crop data obtained by the crop data obtaining unit; data assigning units that assign crop data or crop information based on the crop data to the constructed polygons; a position information assigning unit that assigns position information to the constructed polygons; and field map generating units that generate a field polygon map, which is an aggregate of the polygons, by aggregating the polygons.

An agricultural harvesting machine comprises a path processing system that obtains a predicted crop yield at a plurality of different field segments along a harvester path on a field, and obtains field data corresponding to one or more of the field segments generated based on sensor data as the agricultural harvesting machine is performing a crop processing operation. A yield correction factor is generated based on the received field data and the predicted crop yield at the one or more field segments. Based on applying the yield correction factor to the predicted crop yield, a georeferenced probability metric is generated indicative of a probability that the harvested crop repository will reach the fill capacity at a particular geographic location along the field. A control signal generator generates a control signal to control the agricultural harvesting machine based on the georeferenced probability metric.

A biomass impact sensor for sensing impacts of biomass material may include a pressure sensitive film having a first sensing face and a second opposite face, a first layer of a first material composition directly abutting the first sensing face having a first stiffness, and a second layer of a second material composition directly abutting the second opposite face. The first layer and the second layer may be joined along opposite edges of the pressure sensitive film to envelope the sensing material layer on the opposite edges.