Ticket-Based Harvest Management System and Method Utilizing GPS Trails

Abstract

A system and method is presented for gathering data concerning harvests. Data tickets are generated at a point of origination (i.e., the field), local storage, processing, or a customer location. Implements attached to a vehicle in the field (e.g., a tractor) may provide sensor data over a vehicle communication bus about how a field processing task was performed. A computing device on the vehicle periodically reads the sensor data and records the data along with the current time and GPS position of the vehicle as a data point. A plurality of data points are transmitted to a remote server as a data trail. Data trails from a plurality of vehicles are compared to find points of intersection. Sensor data in the data trails for the points of intersection are examined to determine data related to the transfer of goods between vehicles during the time of intersection.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 a) at a vehicle, performing the following steps:
 i) reading a first sensor on the vehicle to determine a first sensor value indicative of an amount of goods carried by the vehicle; 
 ii) reading a clock to determine a time; 
 iii) reading a GPS device to determine a physical location for the vehicle; 
 iv) storing the time, the first sensor value, and the physical location as a data point; 
 wherein, at a particular time, the first sensor value on the vehicle changes to indicate a change in the amount of goods carried by the first vehicle; 
   b) repeating step a) to create a first plurality of data points at different times, the first plurality of data points including data points before and after the particular time;   c) transmitting a data trail comprising a header and the plurality of data points.