ES2243100B1 - MARKER SYSTEM OF TREATED AREAS AND UNTREATED AREAS, FOR AGRICULTURAL APPLICATIONS WITH ELEVATED WORK WIDTH. - Google Patents

Abstract

The proposed system is an electronic device that incorporates a satellite positioning system (1 and 2). Its destination is the incorporation into an agricultural tractor. The system has a microcontroller (4) and in the course of the application, it stores in a memory (7) precise geographical information of the treated areas. In turn, it informs whether the points in the transversal of the work direction have already been treated or are still untreated (10, 11) referring them to the current position and the width of work. With this information obtained, the tractor driver can be guided within the plot in irregular geometry plots and in adverse conditions, such as high working width, poor visibility, the application made leaves no visible traces on the ground, etc.

Description

Marker system of treated areas and areas without treat, for agricultural applications with high width of job.

Technical sector

The present invention relates to a device electronic that is placed on the dashboard of a tractor, and that offers information to help the tractor driver maintain a width of desired work.

It will be used mainly in the work of fertilizer distribution and herbicide application in cereal crops, because they are the most visually impaired Guided offer, as they have high working widths.

It is possible that particular holdings of cereal farming do not need guidance systems because employ other cultivation techniques different from the usual ones, of the same way that other types of agriculture may not Cerealist can benefit from this device.

State of the art 1. Some notions about agricultural work

In dryland cereal farming we can observe how tractors circulate through the plots. These Tractors carry an implement and perform a job on that plot. Each implement has a working width. Tractors perform a trajectory determined through the plot, with the objective of that with the defined working width, all points of the plot get the action desired by the farmer.

1.1 The work

The work can basically consist of several activities: move the land (plow and grade), sow, distribute fertilizers, apply herbicides, etc.

1.2 The working width

The width of work depends on several factors that are not detailed in this section. It can vary from, for example, two meters in a work of plow, to 40 meters in a work of application of herbicides or contribution of fertilizers. When the working width is small, it is easy to follow the appropriate trajectory, but when it is large we are faced with a series of problems . The resolution of these problems will be our goal.

1.3 The trajectory

The path followed to perform the agricultural work depends on several factors that for now we They interest little and we will not detail. The usual routes they are usually, well around the farm, trajectories by bands, or A combination of both.

2. The cases that concern us: the distribution of fertilizers and herbicide application

There are many agricultural products. There is also many different techniques for growing a certain product. The usefulness of our device will focus on A cereal farming. It is possible that other types of cereal farming do not need guidance systems because use other cultivation techniques, in the same way as possible that other types of non-cereal agriculture can benefit from this device.

2.1 Fertilizer distribution

Let's see how this application is done in the news to later understand the advantages of our system And we will see how the tractor driver is guided to Keep the width of work.

The tractor carries an implement that throws balls of fertilizer the size of a lentil.

We do not extend to explain how you get a uniform fertilizer distribution across the plot, but we simply affirm that a working width is necessary determined.

In the first round the tractor is calculating "by eye" the distance from the center of the tractor to the shore of the farm. On his way he leaves some rolling on the ground that They will serve as a guide for later passes.

In later passes the tractor driver goes looking at the previous rounds and calculating "by eye" the working width

The problem with all this is that as the distances are calculated "by eye", are not usual widths of work over 18 meters, since the mistakes that would be made with higher working widths they would be greater. Also, at increase the distance would be worse the last run previous.

We summarize this section: they are intended to be carried out trajectories maintaining the width of work, and this is difficult to Get at the subscriber.

2.1.1 The application of herbicides

Let's see how these applications are made at present to later be able to understand the advantages of our system. We are just going to see how the Tractor to maintain working width.

The tractor carries a team with an implement that carries a row of nozzles that spray the herbicidal liquid. The width of work usually around 18 meters now.

One end of the implement leaves some foam flakes On the first lap the tractor driver is fixed that the Last nozzle on your right matches the edge of the farm. In after the tractor is fixed that the last nozzle on the right matches the row of past foam flakes previous.

3. GPS guidance devices in the market

Both in Castilla y León and in the rest of Spain, the subscriber and application of herbicides on plots of Cereal are made as described above or with techniques very similar.

On the other hand, most of the machines fertilizers are working with small working widths, because to visual difficulties that would lead to more work widths elevated on farms of small dimensions and irregular geometry. These fertilizers could work with larger working widths, But they don't do it for these reasons. Out of our boundaries, in large plots and with regular geometry, tend to work with much higher working widths.

Several devices have emerged on the market based on GPS that help the tractor to guide applications With high working width. Among them we have:

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John's Parallel Tracking Deere.

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Outback S Outback Guidance

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Ligh Bar by AgLeader.

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CenterLine of Mid-Tech

All these devices, manufacturing American, are oriented to the guidance in applications of fertilizer and fertilizer, but are oriented to large plots and regular geometry (rectangular, triangular, circular geometry, combination of any of these). Some of these teams are presented as an option in the most modern self-propelled cars of herbicide application, or on the John Deere tractor brand. All of them base their operation on storing trajectories, automatically engage in a previous pass through the information provided by the tractor driver on the buttons of the console, and apply a control law to distance error and address with respect to the desired pass to indicate to the Tractor the direction and magnitude of what has to turn. In In the case of Outback, Agleader or Teejet a light in a light bar is move from the center to the sides to indicate this magnitude to turn. In the case of John Deere it is a bar that scrolls inside an LCD screen, but for all intents and purposes the Operation is similar.

We intend to manufacture a device similar to these already marketed, but with some features that will allow you to adapt to the plots Small and irregular geometry of Spain. He will also own the feature of simplicity of use, feature that does not They have these devices that are already sold.

Our device is not a copy and Device modification of these others. It's about two ideas different for the same purpose, each starting from some certain needs and offering different solutions. From In fact, the original idea arose when the inventor, an Engineer of Telecommunications with extensive experience in agricultural work, He was doing subscriber duties on his family farm. Subsequently, it has been materialized taking into account new ideas.

Our project is not strictly a guidance system, but an information system of treated and untreated areas . The difference is that in our system, the device offers information with which it is possible to be guided, but it is not a guiding information that indicates "right" or "left" and the magnitude of what you have to deviate. Differentiating it like this, our device seems much simpler and worse. Simpler it is, but not worse, much less for irregular paths of farms that are the predominant in Castilla y León. We will explain why:

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Our system offers information in all parts of the plot. The system of the aforementioned companies no .

The previous systems try to follow a parallel path to a previously saved one. The beginnings and end of each pass are places where the system cannot guide. The previously seen systems adapt acceptably for rectangular and large farms. Our system adapts well to all kinds of plots.

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Our system is simple and does not require more than the press of a button. These other systems require button presses in the header, when the tractor driver is going to make a parallel run to the one previously made .

In our system, when the application of a plot, you must press the start button. So the system stores the treated points at the same time it goes showing the status of the points that are traveled.

In the other systems, in most of Guidance modalities, the start and end of the path from which you want to continue parallel. And in the headers of the plot, when it goes to perform the return maneuver, buttons must be pressed.

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Our system adapts perfectly to all types of plot geometries. The systems seen above have more problems in guiding plots of irregular geometry, in which the tractor does not make continuous equidistant passes .

Imagine a plot with a geometry specific. We have made the application following trajectories around the plot, and we know that we still have some area without application In this situation, with the mentioned systems previously we can continue making concentric trajectories, but we will not be able to know which are the zones without application. But with our system, just by passing the tractor through that small area untreated, lights will come on indicating positions in our working width that do not yet have fertilizer or herbicide.

Description of the invention

The invention consists of a device electronic that contains, among other elements, a GPS receiver and two light bars; one central and two lateral on both sides.

This device is installed on top of the tractor dashboard or on one side. It has two connections, one of which it connects to the tractor battery, and another to a external antenna that is placed on the upper external part of the tractor cab

The central light bar represents positions within the working width in the transversal to the direction of tractor feed, and the side bars positions also in the  transverse to the direction of travel, but now out of width of work. The bar lights illuminate when the Positions they represent already have application.

When the tractor driver is doing a job with the tractor, with examining the lights that are on in the light bars, is able to know if you are leaving a strip without try, if you are overlapping with respect to the previous pass, if there is a small untreated area, etc.

With this information the tractor driver is able to be guided by the plot in applications with high width of job. The main feature of this device is that It allows guidance in very irregular geometry plots.

1. Device benefits

The main applications of this device are the distribution of fertilizers and the application of herbicides

1.1 Benefits in fertilizer distribution

In the application of fertilizers is where without doubt we can say that there will be an improvement very important, because they will allow greater working widths, so far not used because of the lack of any guidance system. It is not a small improvement, it is an innovation that allow almost double the performance of any equipment paid and achieve greater distribution accuracy.

Only with this advantage is more than justified its use. However, this system also has other advantages very important. Let's see them:

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Time savings . It is clear that increasing the working width reduces the time required to pay a plot. And the time saved is time with "tempera"conditions; conditions in which the field can be worked. This is an especially valuable time because it is scarce and can be used to treat other plots.

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More uniform application , because with a good guidance system the working width is better maintained than "by eye". This entails an increase in benefits , since in an area with a higher dose of fertilizer, production may even decrease, and in an area without fertilizer, surely, production would decrease considerably. Economically, uniform fertilization is very important. Note that the value of the fertilizer distributed per m2 is around the euro cent and on a normal day 400,000 m2 can be paid.

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Possibility of night application and in conditions of poor visibility . Although our modern tractor has many powerful halogen bulbs, without an aid to the guidance such as the one offered by our device, no night subscriber applications can be made, because even during the day there are difficulties for the visualization of the shots of the previous pass. Therefore, our system offers us another great advantage, because taking advantage of the days with a good "tempera" is the key to a good harvest. We can think about the case that an application is delayed the next day due to lack of light. If it rains the next day, the application is no longer delayed one day, but a couple of weeks until the soil dries. The economic losses due to this delay in the application of fertilizers, we would find them in the harvest.

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Fuel economy When paying with greater width of work, less passes are needed to cover the entire farm. And therefore, the path that the tractor must travel will be shorter, which saves fuel.

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Less impact on born plants . Subscription in cereals is done in two phases. In sementera when sown, and in covert , when the cereal is about 6 cm high. When paid in covert, the tractor is treading (and therefore damaging) the cereal already born. With a working width of 10 meters and 30 cm wide wheels, the percentage of damaged cereal is 6%. On the other hand, with a greater working width, this percentage is reduced.

1.2 Benefits of herbicide application

Until a few years ago farmers calculated the path to follow depending on the rolls left by the tractor in the previous passes. But you needed to work with small working widths, and also left "faults", because distances of 16 meters are difficult to calculate visually. The it was usual to overlap one pass with another so that there are areas without application.

A mechanism recently appeared on the market whereby the herbicidal equipment deposits flakes of a foam white soapy, which delimits the treated area of the try. Today this system is imposed because given the high herbicide price a correct application results in notable Benefits.

Comparing it with this mechanism, our device would have a number of advantages:

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Increase in working width . If the width of the herbicide equipment has not been increased further (it is usually around 16 meters), it is due to the difficulty of viewing the foam. With this device, this problem is remedied.

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Possibility of night application and in adverse conditions . The explanation would be the same as that given in the distribution of fertilizers.

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Savings in the application of the foamy substance . The foam of the equipment requires replacement, and yet our system does not require any maintenance.

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Solution of the secondary problems to the disappearance of the foam . When the farm is large, or when the herbicide tank has to be filled, it can happen that the long time used causes the foam to disappear. In addition, when it is sunny, the problems are greater because the foam disappears before. Both disadvantages would be remedied with the device in project.

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Fuel economy As in the distribution of fertilizers, when performing the application with greater working width, fewer passes are needed to cover the entire farm. And therefore, the path that the tractor must travel will be shorter, which saves fuel.

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Less impact on the plants born produced by the wheels of the tractor . As in the distribution of fertilizers, when applying herbicides with a greater working width, the path to travel the farm is smaller, and therefore, the area of cereal damaged by the wheels is also smaller.

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Less impact on the plants born produced by double dose of herbicide . So that there are no areas of the plot without herbicide application, the application must be done overlapping. An area with a double dose of herbicide is harmful, not only because of its expense, but because the cereal affected by this double dose "suffers". We may think that the selective herbicide causes "death" of harmful plants, but only "makes" the cereal sick. The dose must be correct for the harmful plants to die but the cereal does not get too sick. It is necessary to minimize areas with double doses of herbicide.

Description of the figures

Figure 1: This Figure represents a block diagram of the system object of the invention. In this figure, (1) represents a GPS receiving antenna. (2) represents a GPS receiver. (4) represents a microcontroller. (3) represents a connection between the differential GPS and the microcontroller. (5) represents the wiring and logic for the main LED row that can consist of data line and control line. (6) represents a bus. (7) represents a static Ram memory module. (8) represents a bus. (9) represents a set of offset records. (10) represents the LEDs corresponding to the working width. (11) represents the LEDs corresponding to positions outside the working width. (12) start button. (13) pause button. (14) push button continue . (15) + button (16) - button (17) three 7-segment displays . (18) led processing .

Figure 2: This figure represents the panel of controls or front view of the device. The elements of which it consists They are as follows:

19:

Switch of on off.

18:

Led processing .

12:

Start button .

13:

Pause button .

14:

Push button continue .

17:

Three 7-segment displays to visualize the working width.

fifteen:

Push button + to increase the width of job.

16:

Push button - to decrease the width of job.

10:

Central light bar.

eleven:

Light side bars

Figure 3: This figure represents the assignment of each LED of the device to a point relative to the position of the tractor. (21) represents the tractor. (20) represents the working width of the implement. (10) central LED bar corresponding to positions in the working width. (11) LED sidebars corresponding to positions outside the working width.

Figure 4: This figure represents an example of system operation in which overlap occurs and the system shows it by lighting 4 leds (22) of the working width. The elements that are represented are the following:

twenty-one:

Tractor.

22:

Leds on the width of work that report overlap or that we are getting too close to the previous pass.

28:

LEDs positioned on the right side outside the working width. They are turned off because that area is untreated.

27:

Leds positioned within the working width and in an untreated area. They are off.

2. 3:

LEDs positioned outside the working width on the left side. They coincide with the previous pass and that is why they are on.

24:

Zone treated.

25:

Zone Treated twice.

26:

Zone without treating.

Figure 5: This figure represents an example of the operation of the system in which a strip is left untreated and the system shows it by turning off 3 LEDs (30) outside the working width, on the left side which is the one being taken as reference. The elements that are represented are the following:

twenty-one:

Tractor.

30:

LEDs off from outside the working width on the left side that indicate small untreated strip.

31:

Leds lit outside the working width on the left side that indicate treated area.

24:

Zone treated.

26:

Zone without treating.

28:

LEDs positioned on the right side outside the working width. They are turned off because that area is untreated.

32:

Untreated strip.

29:

Work width LEDs off indicating untreated zone.

Figure 6: This figure represents an example of correct operation of the system in which an adjustment is made perfect. The elements that are represented are the following:

twenty-one:

Tractor.

2. 3:

LEDs positioned outside the working width on the left side. They coincide with the previous pass and that is why they are on.

28:

LEDs positioned on the right side outside the working width. They are turned off because that area is untreated.

24:

Zone treated.

26:

Zone without treating.

29:

Work width LEDs off indicating untreated zone.

Figure 7: In this figure we see how a surface can be approximated by a set of UTM coordinates. He UTM coordinate size gives us the precision in the approximation of this surface.

Figure 8: In this figure we highlight with gray dark the points that are stored in the memory of the microcontroller (24) if the path of the black line is followed (30), when working with UTM coordinates of 16 digits that we offer a resolution equivalent to metro area units square and we consider a working width of 10 meters. Area untreated (26) is represented in light gray.

Figure 9: Represents the process of lighting the LEDs , depending on the situation within a plot of the agricultural tractor. (31) are the UTM coordinates not stored in the microcontroller memory. (32) are the UTM coordinates stored in the microcontroller memory due to a previous tractor pass through that area. (33) is the last trajectory of the tractor, standing at the instant shown at the end of the arrow. (34) are the cross-sectional coordinates of the work direction calculated by the microcontroller at the time shown. (36) represent dull LEDs . (35) represent lit LEDs .

Figure 10: This figure represents the process of marking of the treated areas. (39) represents an area (coordinate UTM) untreated. (43) represents a treated area. (44) represents an area treated between the last two position frame shipments by GPS (37.38) represent the ends of the width of the work at the current time when a new shipment of Position plot by GPS. (39, 40) represent the extremes of working width at the instant the GPS receiver sent the penultimate position plot. (45) position obtained by the GPS in The current moment. (41) distance traveled by the tractor between the last two position frame shipments by the GPS receiver. TO each new position frame received from the GPS, the system must store in memory the coordinates within the four black dots (37, 38, 39, 40).

Figure 11: This figure represents the process of LED on the information screen. (39) represents an untreated area (UTM coordinate). (43) represents a treated area (46) represent information LEDs turned off. Those of circular shape represent the working width and the shape rectangular lateral extensions outside the width of job. (47) represent lit LEDs.

Figure 12: In this figure we number each of the leds of our device. (48) is P1, (49) is P2, ..., (67) is P20. This is the numbering that we will use to refer to each of the LEDs in subsequent figures.

Figure 13: This figure represents the algorithm that the microcontroller that owns the device. Each of the numbers represents:

68:

New GPS plot?

69:

Obtaining position and address.

70:

INFORMATION FUNCTION

71:

P1 calculation

72:

P1 in the store?

73:

Turn on P1

74:

Turn off P1

75:

P20 calculation

76:

P20 in the store?

77:

Turn on P20

78:

Turn off P20

79:

STORAGE FUNCTION

80:

Storage of the coordinates that they are located inside rectangle A, B, A ', B' corresponding A with 37, B with 38, A 'with 39 and B' with 40, being these, numerals of  Figure 10

81:

A '= A, B' = B

Figure 14: This figure represents a position possible of our device inside the tractor cabin. Be It represents the view from the driving position. (82) represents a side window (83) represents the front moon. (84) controls of the tractor (85) steering wheel of the tractor (86) display device of treated and untreated areas.

Description of a preferred embodiment

A GPS receiver is a device capable of processing the signals emitted by certain satellites, to calculate their position within the earth's surface.

A differential GPS receiver is a GPS receiver that also processes information related to the values obtained by other receivers relatively close to it, thereby achieving greater accuracy in calculating its position within the earth's surface.

A GPS receiver with WAAS or EGNOS technology obtains information to make the differential correction of a set of satellites.

Therefore, both a GPS receiver, and a differential GPS receiver, or a GPS receiver with WAAS technology are  electronic devices that calculate their position within the Earth's surface, one of them more accurately than the other. From now on we will include all three within the term GPS receiver, because in our design the method with which it is calculated does not influence the position.

It is common for a GPS to be connected by certain electronics to a screen to offer this information to Username. They are the popular consumer GPS receivers, which acquire mountaineers, cyclists, etc., and that we can find in many establishments

But it is also common for a GPS to be part of A much more complete system. A system that uses the information provided by GPS to do more than Offer position information to the user. Our device It will be a case of these.

A GPS receiver offers position in a system of coordinates. Two of the most common coordinate systems are Geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) and UTM coordinates (Universal Transverse Mercator). For our product, the system more convenient is the UTM system. In this system the coordinates define an area and that area is constant for all coordinates UTM of the earth's surface. The precision in defining the Position is a function of the number of digits. The following table shows show some examples:

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UTM coordinates Zone Meters to This North Meters Accuracy m2 30T685 30T 600000 8500000 100,000 30T64853 30T 640000 8530000 10000 30T6458532 30T 645000 8532000 1000 30T64574853241 30T 645740 8532410 10 30T6457428532414 30T 645742 8532414 one 30T645742785324147 30T 6457427 85324147 0.1

We start from a GPS mounting module, manufactured by any company in the sector, for example SIRF. The It is usual for this module to have a connection RS-232-C to communicate with others dispositives. And also that every certain time interval (usually a second) the GPS send a frame with information via RS-232-C to the device with the that communicates, obtaining this the UTM coordinate.

The external device we will use will be a Microcontroller with this serial port. It can be a Microchip PIC16F877. We assume that both differential GPS and Microcontroller are powered. The microcontroller also you will have the necessary connections to generate together with your Logic clock signal.

The device is incorporated into a vehicle mobile, and once launched, will continuously perform two functions:

The first is to store information on "treated" land surface points. The easiest way is to store UTM coordinates.

A set of UTM coordinates can define a surface. In Figure 7 we show how a surface can approach by a set of coordinates with greater or lesser precision according to the accuracy of the UTM coordinates with which let's work (the number of digits).

We can consider "treated" points which are distanced from some point of the path that follows our device a distance less than or equal to half of the working width (20). Therefore, suppose we work with UTM coordinates of 16 digits that offer us a resolution equivalent to area units of square meters, and we consider d = 10m In a trajectory like the one shown by the black line of the Figure 8, the coordinates should be stored in memory corresponding to the units of areas highlighted in dark gray. If more precision were desired, coordinates with 18 digit resolution.

The second function of the objective is to offer information. For this, our device has a series of LEDs (10.11) connected to the microcontroller as shown in Figure 1.

Each of these LEDs represents positions with respect to the tractor as shown in Figure 3.

The information offered is that of points in the transversal work direction have been or not "treated." To obtain this information the microcontroller obtains from the frame sent by the GPS the current position and the address. Calculate then positions in the transversal of the work address, and check if each of the positions calculated is within memory, in the warehouse of treated coordinates (7). Figure 9 illustrates this process.

While in the data memory of the microcontroller can store data, to be able to store a greater number of UMT coordinates treated, given the small capacity of the microcontrollers data memory, it is essential the use of external memory (7) to the microcontroller. This is connect to the microcontroller by some standard like I2C.

The device also has to have buttons for resetting and commissioning, other pushbuttons that together with three 7-segment displays assign a working width, and another operation information LED . The internal structure would then be that of Figure 1, the control panel that seen by the user would be that of Figure 2.

We see in Figure 10 how the process of marking the treated areas is easily performed. Each of the circles represents a UTM coordinate and is equivalent to an area of for example a square meter. An uncolored circle (42) represents an untreated area, a black circle (43) represents a treated area and a gray circle (44) represents a treated area in the last second of application. Coloring a circle corresponds to storing its UTM coordinates in the program memory (7) or putting a bit to one within a previously defined matrix. The program stored in the microcontroller must "mark", in the last period of sending position frames by the GPS in which it has traveled a distance d (41), all the areas between the four black squares (37, 38, 39, 40).

The process of lighting the LEDs is shown in Figure 11. Every second, once the differential GPS has sent the position and address data to the microcontroller, it calculates the position to which each of the LEDs of the device screen, and approximates it by the closest UTM coordinate (maintaining a fixed number of digits). Then see if it is marked (look in the memory if that coordinate is referenced) to turn on the LED corresponding to that position for one second.

We number each of the LEDs of our device to later refer to them, as is shown in Figure 12.

With this numbering, once the device is in operation after the initial settings, the algorithm that the microcontroller must perform every second that owns the device is the one shown in Figure 13, where Each of the numbers represents:

68:

New GPS plot?

69:

Obtaining position and address.

70:

INFORMATION FUNCTION

71:

P1 calculation

72:

P1 in the store?

73:

Turn on P1

74:

Turn off P1

75:

P20 calculation

76:

P20 in the store?

77:

Turn on P20

78:

Turn off P20

79:

STORAGE FUNCTION

13:

Storage of the coordinates that they are located inside rectangle A, B, A ', B' corresponding A with 37, B with 38, A 'with 39 and B' with 40, being these, numerals of  Figure 10

14:

A '= A, B' = B

This device does not need any type of installation with which they can adapt to any tractor. Nail suction cups allow them to adhere to the front moon, using a cable is fed into the cigarette lighter connector with the 12Vdc of the tractor battery, and are connected by a thin cable to the small antenna, which is fixed on the outside of the cabin by a magnet. In Figure 14 we can visualize the appearance of our system inside the tractor.

The device control panel would be the shown in Figure 2.

The device is turned on with the switch (19).

The work width for the implement (20) is then assigned. For this there are two buttons with 1000 (15) and 1001 (16) that make us vary the working width in the 7-segment displays (17), located in a subpanel titled as working width .

The next step is to press the start button (12). The processing LED (18) turns on, and the device begins to write down data on points with application in its memory.

If you proceed with the tractor without applying, or it is necessary to reload the equipment with fertilizer, press the stop button (13). The led will immediately turn off processing (18). When we resume the application, we will press continue (14) and again the LED will turn on processing (18). Until we finish the application of the farm, we can neither press the start button (12), nor turn off the device with the power switch (19).

Our information light panel contains a row of LEDs (10.11). Each of these LEDs corresponds to points in space, as shown in Figure 3.

When a LED comes on it indicates that the point to which it corresponds at that time already has an application.

We see the case in Figure 4. We are in a situation where the light gray surface (24) is an area with application. We see in the figure that we are getting very close to our previous past and we have an area with double dose of fertilizer (25). And the screen indicates this by lighting four circular LEDs 1 (22) of our working width (20).

We now see the case of Figure 5. In this situation we are separating a lot from the previous past And we are leaving a small area in between (32) without application. The system tells us leaving three green lights (30) unlit that are outside our working width (20).

And finally, we see our ideal case, in which The system shows us that we perform the task properly. The we represent in Figure 6.

Claims (2)

1. Procedure for information processing by a microcontroller, in a system of assistance to GPS-based guidance, which includes the following stages:

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Stage 1: Waiting status until Receive new data via a GPS series.

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Stage 2: Decoding of GPS frames for obtaining position and vector data address.

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Stage 3: Conversion of geographical coordinates of the current tractor position (44) a UTM Cartesian coordinates. Each UTM coordinate will represent a surface unit.

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Stage 4: Obtaining through geometric calculations of the positions of the vertices of the polygon (37, 38, 40, 39) treated by the tractor driver between the last shipment of GPS receiver frames and the current instant. For obtaining of these positions the current position data of the tractor (44), the position of the tractor in the previous shipment Position plot by GPS receiver, and working width (twenty).

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Stage 5: Storage in the memory module (7) of the surface units included between the vertices of the polygon (37, 38, 40, 39).

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Stage 6: Depending on the current position (45), of the forward direction, and the width of work (20) the microcontroller calculates the coordinates geographical UTM corresponding to positions in the transversal to the direction of advance in the current position (45). Positions within the working width they correspond to a bar central lights (10), and positions outside the working width on both sides they will be matched with two side bars (eleven).

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Stage 7: For each of the coordinates calculated in the previous stage, a checking if they are stored in external memory of data, to obtain a sequence of bits corresponding to presence or absence of said position in the memory of data.

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Stage 8: Sending Bliss sequence to a set of shift records (9) associated to the leds of the central (10) and lateral bars of lights (11).

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Stage 9: Return to the stage one.

2. System for implementing the method of claim 1 comprising a microcontroller (4) capable of performing these steps, antenna (1), GPS receiver (2), memory module (7), pushbuttons (12, 13 , 14, 15, 16), 7 segment displays (17), light bar corresponding to the working width (10) and side light bars (11). The GPS receiver (2) is connected to the microcontroller (4) through a serial port (3) with RS-232-C protocol, the memory module (7) is connected to the microcontroller via two lines (6) and I2C protocol , the push-buttons and displays are connected to the microcontroller through digital input-output lines (8). Each of the LEDs of the light bars (10.11) is associated with a shift register (9). The microcontroller is connected to the displacement registers by means of two digital lines (5), one of control and another of data.