Patents by Inventor William D. Todd

William D. Todd has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11818982
    Abstract: A grain tailings elevator for a combine harvester includes a an elevator housing having an interior containing a conveyor arrangement configured to transport grain tailings through the elevator housing to a discharge outlet. The elevator housing has a side wall with a window to the interior of the elevator housing. A camera having a camera housing containing an image sensor is mounted to the side wall of the elevator housing over the window with the image sensor in registration with the window. The image sensor is trained on the conveyor arrangement and configured to image the grain tailings transported by the conveyor arrangement through the elevator housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignees: DEERE & COMPANY, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Stephen R. Corban, Scott Miller, William D. Todd, Herman Herman, Zachary Pezzementi, Trenton Tabor, Jonathan Chang
  • Patent number: 11016049
    Abstract: An agricultural permittivity sensor has a drive electrode and a separate sense electrode. Both electrodes have surfaces that face the sensed material and the surfaces are co-planar. The drive electrode receives an excitation signal and generates an electric field that produces a current in the sense electrode. The current is indicative of a test weight of the sensed material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: Andrew C. Locken, Brian J. Booth, William D. Todd
  • Patent number: 10871458
    Abstract: Transmit patches lie on the outer set of conductive patches that are coupled to the transmitter via the signal splitter. The receive patches lie on the outer set of conductive patches that are coupled to one or more receivers to receive a radio frequency field (e.g., fringing field) associated with the transmitted signal of one or more adjacent corresponding transmit patches. A detector is associated with one or more respective receivers for determining or estimating an attenuation of the radio frequency field (e.g., fringing field). An electronic data processor is arranged for evaluating the estimated attenuation to estimate the grain loss content and material other than grain content of the agricultural material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: DEERE & COMPANY
    Inventors: William D. Todd, Gurmukh H. Advani, Noel W. Anderson
  • Patent number: 10863672
    Abstract: Transmit patches lie on the outer set of conductive patches that are coupled to the transmitter via the signal splitter. The receive patches lie on the outer set of conductive patches that are coupled to one or more receivers to receive a radio frequency field (e.g., fringing field) associated with the transmitted signal of one or more adjacent corresponding transmit patches. A detector is associated with one or more respective receivers for determining or estimating an attenuation of the radio frequency field (e.g., fringing field). An electronic data processor is arranged for evaluating the estimated attenuation to estimate the amount, volume, mass or flow (e.g., yield) of harvested agricultural material and/or other than grain content of the agricultural material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2020
    Assignee: DEERE & COMPANY
    Inventors: William D. Todd, Gurmukh H. Advani, Noel W. Anderson
  • Publication number: 20200375104
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 31, 2019
    Publication date: December 3, 2020
    Inventors: Wentao Yu, Volker Fuchs, William D. Todd
  • Publication number: 20200333278
    Abstract: An agricultural permittivity sensor has a drive electrode and a separate sense electrode. Both electrodes have surfaces that face the sensed material and the surfaces are co-planar. The drive electrode receives an excitation signal and generates an electric field that produces a current in the sense electrode. The current is indicative of a test weight of the sensed material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2019
    Publication date: October 22, 2020
    Inventors: Andrew C. LOCKEN, Brian J. BOOTH, William D. TODD
  • Patent number: 10660268
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: Niels Dybro, William D. Todd, Gurmukh H. Advani, Noel W. Anderson, Nathan R. Vandike, Bhanu Kiran Palla
  • Publication number: 20200084967
    Abstract: A grain tailings elevator for a combine harvester includes a an elevator housing having an interior containing a conveyor arrangement configured to transport grain tailings through the elevator housing to a discharge outlet. The elevator housing has a side wall with a window to the interior of the elevator housing. A camera having a camera housing containing an image sensor is mounted to the side wall of the elevator housing over the window with the image sensor in registration with the window. The image sensor is trained on the conveyor arrangement and configured to image the grain tailings transported by the conveyor arrangement through the elevator housing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2019
    Publication date: March 19, 2020
    Inventors: Stephen R. Corban, Scott Miller, William D. Todd, Herman Herman, Zachary Pezzementi, Trenton Tabor, Jonathan Chang
  • Publication number: 20190183047
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2017
    Publication date: June 20, 2019
    Inventors: Niels Dybro, William D. Todd, Gurmukh H. Advani, Noel W. Anderson, Nathan R. Vandike, Bhanu Kiran Palla
  • Publication number: 20190133037
    Abstract: Transmit patches lie on the outer set of conductive patches that are coupled to the transmitter via the signal splitter. The receive patches lie on the outer set of conductive patches that are coupled to one or more receivers to receive a radio frequency field (e.g., fringing field) associated with the transmitted signal of one or more adjacent corresponding transmit patches. A detector is associated with one or more respective receivers for determining or estimating an attenuation of the radio frequency field (e.g., fringing field). An electronic data processor is arranged for evaluating the estimated attenuation to estimate the amount, volume, mass or flow (e.g., yield) of harvested agricultural material and/or other than grain content of the agricultural material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2018
    Publication date: May 9, 2019
    Inventors: WILLIAM D. TODD, GURMUKH H. ADVANI, NOEL W. ANDERSON
  • Publication number: 20190137416
    Abstract: Transmit patches lie on the outer set of conductive patches that are coupled to the transmitter via the signal splitter. The receive patches lie on the outer set of conductive patches that are coupled to one or more receivers to receive a radio frequency field (e.g., fringing field) associated with the transmitted signal of one or more adjacent corresponding transmit patches. A detector is associated with one or more respective receivers for determining or estimating an attenuation of the radio frequency field (e.g., fringing field). An electronic data processor is arranged for evaluating the estimated attenuation to estimate the grain loss content and material other than grain content of the agricultural material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2018
    Publication date: May 9, 2019
    Inventors: William D. Todd, Gurmukh H. Advani, Noel W. Anderson
  • Patent number: 10051787
    Abstract: A harvesting head yield monitor comprises two sensing elements (328, 330) respectively disposed in two adjacent row unit covers (114). A driver circuit (400) drives one of these sensing elements (328) to produce a high radio frequency signal. The other sensing element (330) receives the signal. A signal conditioning circuit (402) receives the signal from the other sensing element. A controller (404) coupled to the signal conditioning circuit converts the received signal into a signal that indicates the crop yield of the row unit that is disposed underneath the two adjacent row unit covers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Deere & Company
    Inventors: William D. Todd, Bhanu Kiran Palla
  • Patent number: 9894439
    Abstract: A computing device includes a first housing and a second housing attached by a hinge. The first housing includes a first microphone and the second housing includes a second microphone. After determining that an angle between the first and second housing has changed to a current angle, the computing device may determine a distance between the first microphone and the second microphone based on the current angle. A first audio signal from the first microphone and a second audio signal from the second microphone may each be modified (e.g., using a beamforming algorithm) to create first and second modified audio signals. The first and second modified audio signals may include less noise than the first and second audio signals. The first and second modified audio signals may be sent to an output jack or to an audio application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2018
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: Douglas J. Peeler, Lawrence E. Knepper, William D. Todd Nix
  • Publication number: 20170332551
    Abstract: A harvesting head yield monitor comprises two sensing elements (328, 330) respectively disposed in two adjacent row unit covers (114). A driver circuit (400) drives one of these sensing elements (328) to produce a high radio frequency signal. The other sensing element (330) receives the signal. A signal conditioning circuit (402) receives the signal from the other sensing element. A controller (404) coupled to the signal conditioning circuit converts the received signal into a signal that indicates the crop yield of the row unit that is disposed underneath the two adjacent row unit covers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 17, 2016
    Publication date: November 23, 2017
    Inventors: William D. Todd, Bhanu Kiran Palla