A cleaning fan on an agricultural harvester generates airflow along an airflow path through a fan duct. A movable flap is mounted relative to the fan duct and controlled to divert the airflow path in a side-to-side transverse direction relative to a front-to-back longitudinal axis of the agricultural harvester.

A combine has a grain sample sensor for detecting frequencies of impacts of separated grain on the grain sample sensor, a grain loss sensor for detecting frequencies of impacts of residue and lost grain on the grain loss sensor, and a controller. The controller is configured to receive, from the grain sample sensor, the frequencies of the impacts of the separated grain, receive, from the grain loss sensor, the frequencies of the impacts of the residue and the lost grain, set a detection frequency band based on the frequencies of the impacts of the separated grain, filter the frequencies of the impacts of the residue and the lost grain based on the detection frequency band, determine, from the filtered frequencies, grain loss information, and indicate the grain loss information to an operator of the combine, or control the combine based on the grain loss information.

A sensor system for counting elements of a flow of harvested material. The sensor system comprises an oscillating circuit and a measuring device, wherein the oscillating circuit comprises at least one capacitive component with a capacitance and an inductive component with an inductance. The oscillating circuit has a resonance frequency which depends on the capacitance and the inductance. Further, the capacitive component is positioned in the region of the flow of harvested material, so that the capacitance is influenced by individual elements of the flow of harvested material. The measuring device is configured to determine the resonance frequency of the oscillating circuit. In this way, the sensor system is configured to deduce at least one property of the particular element of the flow of harvested material from the resonance frequency of the oscillating circuit.

Systems and methods are described for a virtual sensor that determines an amount of grain loss during operation of a combine harvester without any direct measurement of grain loss. An electronic controller is configured to determine values for a set of operating conditions including a plurality of sensor values and actuator settings. The electronic controller then applies an artificial neural network that is configure to receive as inputs the values for the set of operating conditions and to produce as an output a value indicative of an estimate amount of grain loss.

An agricultural harvesting machine has a control arrangement including an optical sensor device for recording image series of a continuous main crop stream, an evaluation device for ascertaining a portion of damaged grain, a portion of non-grain in the main crop stream or both, on the basis of an image analysis of the recorded image series and a visualization device for displaying the portion of damaged grain and/or the portion of non-grain. The control arrangement cyclically records image series of the continuous main crop stream and, within a predetermined processing time after an image series has been recorded, displays a current portion of damaged grain, a current portion of non-grain or both, based on the image series.

A harvesting machine capable of automatic adjustment, comprising a plurality of acoustic material flow sensors, a control system, a processor, and application software, wherein the plurality of acoustic material flow sensors are mounted internal to the harvesting machine at points of crop material flow and are capable of sensing an amount of crop material passing by them, wherein the control system is capable of adjusting a plurality of internal elements of the harvesting machine, wherein the software is hosted on the processor, and the processor is operatively coupled to the control system and the acoustic material flow sensors, wherein the software uses information sensed by the acoustic material flow sensors to determine if the internal elements of the harvesting machine are set for optimal machine performance, and the software sends commands to the internal elements of the harvesting machine in order to improve the machine performance.

A material flow sensor for a harvesting machine comprising an acoustic chamber comprising an impact plate and a housing, microphone, a pneumatic impulse line connecting the housing and the microphone, and an electronics module, wherein the housing is shaped so as to direct sound waves created by crop matter striking the impact plate into the pneumatic impulse line, wherein the sound waves move through the pneumatic impulse line into the microphone, which detects the sound waves and converts them into an electrical signal that is a representation of the sound power derived from the sound waves, which in turn is a representation of the mass of the crop matter striking the material flow sensor.

A set of sensor inputs are received in an agricultural machine. The sensor inputs are indicative of sensed or measured variables. A probabilistic control system probabilistically infers values for another set of variables and generates a set of control signals based on the probabilistically inferred values.

A method and apparatus estimate yield. A first signal is received that an aggregate yield measured by an aggregate yield sensor during a measurement interval. A second signal is received that indicates a plurality of geo-referenced regions across which a harvester has traveled prior to the measurement interval. The method and apparatus allocate, to each of at least two geo-referenced regions, an aggregate yield portion allocation based upon different travel times for crops to the aggregate yield sensor Visual-Infrared Vegetative Index data derived from sensing of plants in selected portions of the electromagnetic spectrum at a time other than harvest. The aggregate yield portion allocations are output.

A system to detect grain loss of a harvester during harvesting operations. The system includes at least two pans magnetically supported on the harvester above a ground surface, by separate electromagnets being electrically isolated from a power source while magnetically supporting the at least two pans. A signal controller generates a release signal when triggered by a user. A signal receiver responsive to the generated release signal electrically connects one of the electromagnets with the power source causing one of the at least two pans to be released to the ground surface while the second electromagnet remains electrically isolated from the power source and magnetically supported on the combine harvester until another release signal is triggered by the user causing the signal receiver to electrically connect the second electromagnet with the power source to release the second pan to the ground surface.