Agricultural Vehicle Route Planning Using Heuristic-Trained ML

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Solution Overview

Problem

Collecting real-world data for training machine-learning models for agricultural vehicle route planning is time-consuming and expensive, or impossible for rare/complex problems, leading to biased and inefficient route prediction.

Innovation Solution

Generate training data using heuristic algorithms to process boundary data of agricultural regions, incorporating constraints and real-world historical routes, and combine with machine-learning models to predict efficient routes.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If real-world data is collected for training machine-learning models, then the model can learn from actual operational patterns, but the data collection process is time-consuming and expensive

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveroute prediction accuracyVSAvoiddata collection time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates synthetic training data by copying and simulating real-world route planning scenarios through a digital twin of the agricultural vehicle and field environment. This allows the machine learning model to be trained on numerous simulated examples without the time and cost of collecting equivalent real-world data, while still capturing the essential patterns and constraints of actual operations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

2Measurement precision

If real-world data is collected for training machine-learning models, then the model can learn from actual operational patterns, but the process is expensive

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveroute prediction accuracyVSAvoiddata collection cost
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates synthetic training data by copying and simulating real-world route planning scenarios through a digital twin of the agricultural vehicle and field environment. This allows the machine learning model to be trained on numerous simulated examples without the time and cost of collecting equivalent real-world data, while still capturing the essential patterns and constraints of actual operations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

3Ease of manufacture

If training data is limited to available real-world data, then collection is more feasible, but the model cannot handle rare or complex route planning problems

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedata collection feasibilityVSAvoidmodel adaptability to rare problems
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent prepares the system in advance by creating a digital twin that encapsulates the vehicle's characteristics, field boundaries, and operational constraints. This preliminary setup enables the generation of diverse synthetic training data covering rare and complex scenarios that would be difficult to capture in real-world operations, thereby improving model adaptability without requiring extensive real-world data collection for each scenario.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates synthetic training data by copying and simulating real-world route planning scenarios through a digital twin of the agricultural vehicle and field environment. This allows the machine learning model to be trained on numerous simulated examples without the time and cost of collecting equivalent real-world data, while still capturing the essential patterns and constraints of actual operations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

4Measurement precision

If manual data collection is used, then real operational patterns can be captured, but manual biases are introduced into the training data

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveroute prediction accuracyVSAvoiddata objectivity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates synthetic training data by copying and simulating real-world route planning scenarios through a digital twin of the agricultural vehicle and field environment. This allows the machine learning model to be trained on numerous simulated examples without the time and cost of collecting equivalent real-world data, while still capturing the essential patterns and constraints of actual operations.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses automated algorithms to generate training data through the digital twin simulation, eliminating the need for manual data collection and annotation. This self-service approach ensures that the training data is generated consistently according to predefined rules and constraints, removing human bias from the data collection process while maintaining operational realism.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentEP4686384A1Machine-learning for route planning for an agricultural vehicle
Publication Date: 2026.02.04 AGCO INT GMBH
  • EP4686384A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4686384A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4686384A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A computing system for training a machine-learning model for predicting a recommended route for an agricultural vehicle to perform an agricultural process. The computing system further tracks adherence of the agricultural vehicle to the recommended route and/or controlling the vehicle to follow the recommended route. The machine-learning model is trained on recommended routes generated using one or more heuristic algorithms.