Systems and methods for corn head control

1 . A mobile agricultural harvester comprising:

a non-header portion;

a header coupled to the non-header portion;

a first material other than grain (MOG) intake characteristic sensor, disposed on the non-header portion, configured to:

detect a first MOG intake characteristic, indicative of MOG intake, at a first location; and

generate first MOG intake sensor data indicative of a first MOG intake value based on the first MOG intake characteristic at the first location;

a second MOG intake characteristic sensor configured to:

detect a second MOG intake characteristic indicative of MOG intake at a second location that is outside of the non-header portion and spaced apart from the first location; and

generate second MOG intake sensor data indicative of a second MOG intake value based on the second MOG intake characteristic at the second location; and

a control system configured to:

aggregate the first MOG intake value and the second MOG intake value to generate an aggregate MOG intake value;

generate a comparison result indicative of a comparison of the aggregate MOG intake value to a threshold intake value; and

control the mobile agricultural harvester based on the comparison result.

2 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 1 , wherein the first MOG intake characteristic sensor is one of: (i) a sensor configured to detect, as the first MOG intake characteristic within the non-header portion, an amount of MOG within a cleaning system of the mobile agricultural harvester; (ii) a sensor configured to detect, as the first MOG intake characteristic within the non-header portion, an amount of force used to drive a crop processing component within the non-header portion; and (iii) a sensor configured to detect, as the first MOG intake characteristic within the non-header portion, an amount of MOG within or provided to a clean grain tank of the non-header portion; and

wherein the second MOG intake characteristic sensor is one of: (iv) a sensor configured detect, as the second MOG intake characteristic outside of the non-header portion; an amount of MOG expelled by the mobile agricultural harvester; and (v) a sensor configured to detect, as the second MOG intake characteristic, an amount of MOG on the header.

3 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 1 and further comprising:

a deck plate actuator configured to control a spacing between a pair of deck plates of the header and wherein the control system is further configured to control the deck plate actuator to adjust the spacing between the pair of deck plates of the header based on the MOG intake sensor data.

4 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 1 and further comprising:

a grain loss sensor configured to detect a characteristic indicative of grain loss and generate grain loss sensor data indicative of a grain loss value;

a header speed actuator configured to control a speed of a component of the header; and

wherein the control system is further configured to control the header speed actuator to adjust the speed of the component of the header based on the MOG intake sensor data and the grain loss sensor data.

5 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 1 , and further comprising a header speed actuator configured to control a speed of a component of the header, wherein the control system is further configured to:

determine the first MOG intake value based on the first MOG intake sensor data;

compare the first MOG intake value to a first MOG intake value threshold; and

control the header speed actuator to adjust the speed of the component of the header based on the comparison.

6 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 1 , and further comprising a header speed actuator configured to control a speed of a component of the header, wherein the control system is further configured to:

determine the first MOG intake value based on the MOG intake sensor data;

compare the first MOG intake value to a previous value of MOG intake detected during operation of the mobile agricultural harvester; and

control the header speed actuator to adjust the speed of the component of the header based on the comparison.

7 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 4 , wherein the grain loss sensor comprises a first grain loss sensor configured to detect a first characteristic within the non-header portion and generate first grain loss sensor data indicative of a first grain loss value, the mobile agricultural harvester further comprising:

a second grain loss sensor configured to detect a second characteristic outside of the non-header portion and generate second grain loss sensor data indicative of a second grain loss value; and

wherein the control system is further configured to control the header speed actuator to adjust the speed of the component of the header based on the MOG intake sensor data, the first grain loss sensor data, and the second grain loss sensor data.

8 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 1 , and further comprising:

a header speed actuator configured to control a speed of a component of the header;

a characteristic sensor configured to detect a characteristic and generate characteristic sensor data indicative of a value of the characteristic;

wherein the control system is further configured to control the header speed actuator to adjust the speed of the component of the header based on the characteristic sensor data; and

wherein the characteristic sensor comprises one of:

a sensor configured to detect, as the characteristic, ear size and to generate, as the characteristic sensor data, characteristic sensor data indicative of a value of ear size; or

a sensor configured to detect, as the characteristic, stalk diameter and to generate, as the characteristic sensor data, characteristic sensor data indicative of a value of stalk diameter.

9 . A computer implemented method of controlling a mobile agricultural harvester, the computer implemented method comprising:

detecting, with a grain loss sensor, a characteristic indicative of grain loss;

determining a grain loss value based on the detected characteristic indicative of grain loss;

detecting, with a first material other than grain (MOG) intake characteristic sensor disposed on the mobile agricultural harvester, a first MOG intake characteristic outside of a non-header portion, the first MOG intake characteristic comprising at least one of:

an amount of MOG expelled by the mobile agricultural harvester, or

an amount of MOG on a header coupled to the non-header portion of the mobile agricultural harvester; and

determining a first MOG intake value based on the first MOG intake characteristic;

detecting, with a second MOG intake characteristic sensor disposed on the non-header portion, a second MOG intake characteristic different than the first MOG intake characteristic;

determining a second MOG intake value based on the second MOG intake characteristic; and

controlling a header speed actuator of the mobile agricultural harvester to adjust a speed of a component of the header and controlling a deck plate actuator of the mobile agricultural harvester to control a spacing between a pair of deck plates of the header of the mobile agricultural harvester based on the first MOG intake value, the second MOG intake value, and the grain loss value.

10 . The computer implemented method of claim 9 , further comprising:

determining, based on sensor data generated by a plurality of sensors on the non-header portion, two or more of: (i) a grain loss value; (ii) a grain quality value; and (iii) a header MOG intake value; and

controlling the header speed actuator of the mobile agricultural harvester to adjust the speed of the component of the header based on the two or more of:

(i) the grain loss value; (ii) the grain quality value; and (iii) the header MOG intake value.

11 . An agricultural corn harvesting system comprising:

a non-header portion;

a corn header coupled to the non-header portion;

a deck plate actuator configured to control a spacing between a pair of deck plates;

a header speed actuator configured to control a speed of a component of the corn header;

a first material other than grain (MOG) intake characteristic sensor, disposed on the non-header portion, configured to detect a first MOG intake characteristic within the non-header portion indicative of MOG intake and generate first sensor data indicative of a first MOG intake value;

a second MOG intake characteristic sensor configured to detect, at a location outside of the non-header portion, a second MOG intake characteristic indicative of MOG intake and generate second sensor data indicative of a second MOG intake value;

a grain loss sensor configured to detect a characteristic indicative of grain loss and generate grain loss sensor data indicative of a grain loss value; and

a control system configured to:

aggregate the first MOG intake value and the second MOG intake value to generate an aggregate MOG intake value;

generate a first comparison result indicative of a comparison of the aggregate MOG intake value to a threshold intake value;

generate a second comparison result indicative of a comparison of the grain loss value to a threshold grain loss value;

determine a control action based on the first comparison result and the second comparison result; and

control at least one of the deck plate actuator or the header speed actuator based on the control action.

12 . The agricultural corn harvesting system of claim 11 , wherein the grain loss sensor comprises a first grain loss sensor configured to detect a first characteristic indicative of grain loss corresponding to the non-header portion and generate first grain loss sensor data indicative of a first grain loss value, the agricultural corn harvesting system further comprising:

a second grain loss sensor configured to detect a second characteristic indicative of grain loss corresponding to the corn header and generate second grain loss sensor data indicative of a second grain loss value; and

wherein the control system is further configured to determine the control action based on the first MOG intake value, the second MOG intake value, the first grain loss value, and the second grain loss value.

13 . The agricultural corn harvesting system of claim 12 and further comprising:

a sensor configured to detect a characteristic and generate characteristic sensor data indicative of a value of the characteristic, wherein the control system is further configured to determine the control action based on the first MOG intake value, the second MOG intake value, the first grain loss value, the second grain loss value, and the value of the characteristic, and wherein the sensor comprises one of:

an ear size sensor configured to detect, as the characteristic, ear size and to generate, as the characteristic sensor data, ear size sensor data indicative of, as the value of the characteristic, a value of ear size;

a stalk diameter sensor configured to detect, as the characteristic, stalk diameter and to generate, as the characteristic sensor data, stalk diameter sensor data indicative of, as the value of the characteristic, a value of stalk diameter; or

a grain quality sensor configured to detect, as the characteristic, grain quality and to generate, as the characteristic sensor data, grain quality sensor data indicative of, as the value of the characteristic, a value of grain quality.

14 . The agricultural corn harvesting system of claim 11 and further comprising a header height actuator configured to control a height of the corn header, wherein the control system is further configured to:

control at least one of the deck plate actuator, the header speed actuator, or the header height actuator based on the control action.

15 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 1 , wherein the second MOG intake characteristic sensor is configured to detect an amount of MOG on the header, and wherein the

second MOG intake value is based on the detected amount of MOG on the header.

16 . The mobile agricultural harvester of claim 1 , wherein the second MOG intake characteristic is different than the first MOG intake characteristic, and each characteristic, of the first MOG intake characteristic and the second MOG intake characteristic, comprises at least one of non-header portion MOG intake, MOG output, MOG load, non-header portion grain loss, or grain quality.