Patent ID: 8682540

Claim:
A method of directing a movable unloading apparatus of a harvesting machine to a container driven adjacent thereto, the container having near and remote upper borders the method comprising: employing a camera on the harvesting machine to capture images for a portion of the container, the camera generating image data on a distance between the camera and the portion of the container; processing the image data for a limited portion of a loading surface and not a whole thereof, the limited portion associated with one single vertical strip to a left of an unloading region and one single vertical strip to a right of the unloading region, to simplify processing; deriving therefrom data on a position of the portion of the container relative to the unloading apparatus; and using the position data for automatically moving the unloading apparatus relative to the harvesting machine towards a predetermined position relative to the container, wherein the processing act further comprises: generating a filtered distance value for each of single vertical strips, via filtering distance data that correspond to the single vertical strips; and analyzing for each of the single vertical strips sequence of filtered distance values for deriving therefrom a vertical position of at least one of the near or remote upper border of the container.