Autonomous Farm Route Planning for Dynamic Field Coverage
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing route planning systems for autonomous agricultural work machines are limited in their ability to adapt to changing conditions during the execution of pre-planned routes, leading to inefficiencies and potential overlap or omission of territory coverage.
Innovation Solution
A route planning system that dynamically adapts route plans in response to changing conditions, allowing autonomous agricultural work machines to operate in semi-autonomous or fully autonomous modes, and enabling flexible reaction to events such as obstacle avoidance or changes in available machinery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a pre-planned route is executed by autonomous agricultural work machines, then the initial route plan can be established, but the system cannot adapt to changing conditions during execution
Solution Approach 1:
The route plan is transformed from a static pre-planned path to a dynamic structure that can be adjusted in real-time. The system continuously monitors actual progress against planned progress and automatically generates new route segments when deviations are detected, allowing the route plan to adapt to changing conditions such as machine availability, terrain variations, or weather changes without requiring complete re-planning
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where the actual progress of autonomous work machines is continuously monitored and compared against the planned progress. When deviations are detected (such as a machine falling behind schedule or becoming unavailable), the system uses this feedback information to automatically generate corrective route adjustments and redistribute work areas, enabling adaptive response to changing conditions
2Productivity
If the route plan is dynamically adapted in real-time, then operational flexibility is improved, but computational requirements and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of completely re-calculating the entire route plan when changes occur, the system performs partial re-planning by generating only the necessary new route segments to address detected deviations. This approach adjusts only the affected portions of the route plan while maintaining the validity of already-executed segments, significantly reducing computational time and processing requirements while still achieving adaptive response
3Productivity
If multiple autonomous work machines operate on a territory, then coverage efficiency increases, but risk of overlap or omission of territory areas increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the actual progress of each autonomous work machine and compares it against the planned progress. This feedback mechanism enables real-time detection of potential overlaps or omissions in territory coverage, allowing the system to generate corrective route adjustments that maintain precise and complete coverage even when multiple machines operate simultaneously or in sequence
Solution Approach 2:
The system proactively generates new route segments and redistributes territory areas before overlaps or omissions can occur. By continuously monitoring machine positions and progress, the system anticipates potential coverage issues and adjusts routes in advance, ensuring complete and non-overlapping coverage of the entire territory
Data Source
AI summary
A route planning system configured to create the route plan for an autonomous agricultural work machine and/or for a network of autonomous agricultural work machines. A given agricultural work machine may be operated in a semi-autonomous operating mode, in which a user is on board or resident in the agricultural work machine, or a fully autonomous operating mode, in which no user is assigned to the agricultural work machine. The generated route plan may be dynamically adapted depending on one or more events, with the dynamically adapted route plan being transmitted to the autonomous agricultural work machine. The user or an operator assigned to the given autonomous agricultural work machine may accept the adapted route plan for the given agricultural work machine.