Patent Document ID: 8175775
Application ID: 12157521
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A system for enabling the establishment of performance parameters for and among a plurality of agricultural machines designed and operable to perform agricultural operation in accordance with an operating set of performance parameters established for such agricultural machine, comprising: a plurality of agricultural machines located within a given area, each of which individual agricultural machines includes an operating system that includes an operator interface portion, a sensor input portion, a master machine control portion, and an operation performance portion, said master machine control portion operatively connected to said operator interface portion, said sensor input portion, and said operation performance portion, said operator interface portion including operator input controls operable to provide operator input data to said master machine control portion, said sensor input portion operable to monitor operational conditions and to provide sensor input data to said master machine control portion, said output performance portion operable to effect performance of an agricultural operation by such individual agricultural machine under control of said master machine control portion thereof, said master machine control portion responsive to said data provided thereto from said operator interface portion and said sensor portion to establish performance parameters for said individual agricultural machine, each said individual agricultural machine operable to establish machine-specific performance parameters for such agricultural machine and to independently perform the agricultural operation in accordance with said machine-specific performance parameters established therefor, said machine-specific performance parameters including as at least a subset thereof a set of performance parameters defining a base operating set of performance parameters, each said individual agricultural machine also having associated therewith a communications control portion operable to transmit and receive communication signals, said communications control portion operatively connected to said master machine control portion to effect the communication therefrom and thereto of communications data, said plurality of individual agricultural machines being positioned with respect to one another to be within range of said communication signals, said positioned plurality of individual agricultural machines defining and being group members in a peer-to-peer network having a wireless communications bus accessible through said communications control portions of said individual agricultural machines interconnecting said positioned plurality of individual agricultural machines for point-to-point communications, a group member of said peer-to-peer network being operable to enable said group member to identify an exemplar machine from said plurality of individual agricultural machines and to effect the transmission by said exemplar machine of data representative of said operating set of performance parameters of said exemplar machine over said wireless communications bus to others of said plurality of agricultural machines, at least one of said plurality of agricultural machines, defined as a target machine, operable to receive over said wireless communications bus said data representative of said base operating set of performance parameters of said exemplar machine and to establish for said target machine, in place of said target machine's previously established base operating set of machine-specific performance parameters, a substitute base operating set of performance parameters determined from said base operating set of performance parameters established for said exemplar machine, said target machine thereafter operable to independently perform the agricultural operation in accordance with said substitute base operating set of performance parameters established therefor.