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7.
Information screens and menus
Robocrop has a graphical working screen that conveys all the information necessary for normal
operation. A description of this screen is given in section 4.
A series of six touch screen buttons along the right of the display allow operators to access user
controls such as fine offset and manual control of side shift/steered discs. Their function is
described by labels superimposed on each button.
Set up procedures and more advanced information can be accessed via additional screens that
can be navigated to via the working screen. The function of the touch screen buttons changes with
each screen, but is always described by its label.
7.1 The Setup Menu
The setup screen can be reached by pressing the spanner button from the working screen. Three
settings
“Crop size” and “Configuration” and “Crop Colour” (optional facility) can be altered in this
screen.
Navigation within the set up screen is achieved by moving the cursor over options using buttons
labelled with arrows. When the cursor is over an appropriate setting it can be selected by pressing
the button labelled “OK”.
“Crop size”
increases template size to compensate for the crop canopy getting closer to
the camera as it grows. This avoids the need to physically adjust camera height when
moving between crops of different heights. Robocrop has settings for small, medium and
large crops. As a guide, crops up to approximately 5cm (2”) high are regarded as small,
5cm (2”) to 15cm (6”), medium and greater than 15cm (6”) high, large. On initial set up the
default will be medium, though Robocrop remembers crop size from the previous session
regardless of which configuration file was used.
“Configuration”
allows users to select between alternative pre-programmed configuration
files for different crop planting geometries requiring different templates.
The main parameters of the chosen configuration file are displayed at the bottom of the
setup screen, they are:
Camera number
Viewing - Number of rows being used for tracking.
Spacing - The row spacing between the rows being viewed.
Camera height - Distance vertically from lens to ground when in work
Camera look ahead
– Horizontal distance along the ground from a point vertically below
the lens to the centreline of sight (marked by cross hairs in “Manual” mode).
