{
  "patent_number": "US 20210161059",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Farm Machines Stay Straight on Slopes for Different Tasks",
  "original_title": "Guidance working depth compensation",
  "summary": "This patent describes how a smart farm machine uses GPS and ground slope data to precisely adjust its tools sideways, ensuring follow-up tasks like fertilizing perfectly align with earlier tasks like seeding, even when working at different depths or heights.",
  "what_it_does": "The patent describes a mobile machine, like a tractor, that uses a receiver with an antenna to get its exact position (Claim 1). It records the machine's location and the depth a tool (implement) is working at during a first pass over a field (Claim 1). For a later pass, perhaps with a different tool or task, the machine's computing system calculates new \"reference points\" for a second path. These points consider the previously recorded data, the slope of the ground, and the desired working depth or height for the new task (Claim 1). Based on these calculated reference points, the machine then precisely shifts its implement sideways (adjusts its \"lateral position\") to ensure it follows the correct path relative to the first pass (Claim 1). For example, if a farmer first seeds deep in the soil, the system can then guide a sprayer to apply fertilizer directly above those seeds, even if the sprayer is working above ground and the field has a slope.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover systems that adjust implement position only based on the current machine's path without considering a previously recorded path or ground slope.",
    "Does not cover systems that adjust implement position solely based on visual sensors without using position information and recorded working depth.",
    "Does not cover machines where the implement cannot be shifted laterally relative to the machine's forward movement.",
    "Does not cover single-stage farming operations that do not involve distinct functions over non-overlapping intervals of time.",
    "Does not cover systems that only adjust the working depth of an implement, rather than its lateral position."
  ],
  "filed": "2018-04-30",
  "granted": null,
  "expires": "2038-04-30",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "AGCO International",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/agco-international",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Oliver Kaufmann",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/oliver-kaufmann"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 4,
  "tags": [
    "agriculture",
    "software",
    "telecommunications",
    "robotics",
    "automotive"
  ],
  "abstract": "A mobile machine includes a receiver with an antenna configured to receive position information, an implement associated with the mobile machine and shiftable in a direction lateral to the machine's forward movement, and a computing system in communication with the receiver. The computing system is configured to record values corresponding to the position information and a working depth along a first path, determine one or more reference points for a second path based on the recorded values, a ground surface slope, and a working depth or height along the second path, and adjust a lateral position of the implement relative to the mobile machine based on the one or more reference points for the second path.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/20210161059/guidance-working-depth-compensation",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/20210161059/guidance-working-depth-compensation/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US20210161059",
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}