Agricultural baler with flake prediction for bale length control

1 . An agricultural baler comprising:

a main bale chamber in which crop material is compressed into bales, the main bale chamber comprising an inlet for receiving a wad of crop material from a pre-compression chamber of the agricultural baler, and an outlet for discharge of compressed crop material into a completed bale formed by a plurality of flakes that are incrementally added together;

a bale length sensor that is configured to determine a current length of one bale as the bale is being formed in the main bale chamber; and

a controller that estimates a completed length of the bale during formation of the bale based on (i) the current length of the bale being formed and (ii) a predicted thickness of an impending flake to be added to the bale that is based on a thickness of the immediately preceding flake, as measured by the bale length sensor.

2 . The agricultural baler of claim 1 , wherein the bale length sensor is a rotatable star-wheel that is mounted in the main bale chamber.

3 . The agricultural baler of claim 2 , further comprising a rotary encoder that is operatively coupled to the star-wheel, the rotary encoder being configured to output rotation signals to the controller, the rotation signals corresponding to a rotation of the star-wheel.

4 . The agricultural baler of claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to calculate the current length of the bale as a function of the rotation signals of the rotary encoder.

5 . The agricultural baler of claim 1 , further comprising a knotter that is configured to wrap and tie twine around a formed bale in the main bale chamber.

6 . The agricultural baler of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to activate the knotter to wrap and tie twine around the formed bale in the main bale chamber once the controller calculates that the completed length estimate is within a pre-determined range.

7 . The agricultural baler of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to calculate the predicted thickness based on a mean thickness of multiple preceding flakes, as measured by the bale length sensor.

8 . The agricultural baler of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to calculate the predicted thickness based on a mean thickness of multiple preceding flakes, as measured by the bale length sensor, and the controller is further configured to calculate a standard deviation of the thicknesses of the multiple preceding flakes.

9 . The agricultural baler of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to either add or subtract the standard deviation to the mean thickness to determine the predicted thickness of the impending flake as either a maximum or minimum value, respectively.

10 . The agricultural baler of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to calculate either two or three standard deviations of the thicknesses of the multiple preceding flakes, and either add or subtract the two or three standard deviations to the mean thickness to determine the predicted thickness of the impending flake as either a maximum or minimum value, respectively.

11 . The agricultural baler of claim 8 , wherein the controller comprises a memory for storing the current length and a measured thickness of each of the multiple preceding flakes.

12 . The agricultural baler of claim 1 , wherein in calculating the predicted thickness, the controller is configured to filter out signals transmitted by the bale length sensor during events including headland travel.

13 . The agricultural baler of claim 1 , further comprising a plunger that is configured for compressing the crop material within the main bale chamber.

14 . An agricultural vehicle comprising a tractor and the agricultural baler of claim 1 mounted to the tractor.

15 . A method of operating an agricultural baler, the method comprising:

compressing crop material in a main bale chamber of the agricultural baler to form bales, the main bale chamber comprising an inlet for receiving a wad of crop material from a pre-compression chamber of the agricultural baler, and an outlet for discharge of compressed crop material into a completed bale formed by a plurality of flakes that are incrementally added together;

determining a current length of one bale as the bale is being formed in the main bale chamber using a bale length sensor of the agricultural baler; and

estimating a completed length of the bale during formation of the bale using a controller of the agricultural baler based on (i) the current length of the bale being formed and (ii) a predicted thickness of an impending flake to be added to the bale that is based on a thickness of the immediately preceding flake, as measured by the bale length sensor.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the controller calculates the predicted thickness based on a mean thickness of multiple preceding flakes, as measured by the bale length sensor.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the controller calculates the predicted thickness based on a mean thickness of multiple preceding flakes, as measured by the bale length sensor, and the controller further calculates a standard deviation of the thicknesses of the multiple preceding flakes.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the controller either adds or subtracts the standard deviation to the mean thickness to determine the predicted thickness of the impending flake as either a maximum or minimum value, respectively.

19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the controller calculates either two or three standard deviations of the thicknesses of the multiple preceding flakes, and either adds or subtracts the two or three standard deviations to the mean thickness to determine the predicted thickness of the impending flake as either a maximum or minimum value, respectively.

20 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising storing the current length and a measured thickness of each of the multiple preceding flakes in a memory of the controller.

21 . The method of claim 15 , wherein in calculating the predicted thickness, the controller filters out signals transmitted by the bale length sensor during events including headland travel.