Autonomous Utility Vehicle Return Route Generation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomously navigating utility vehicles face inefficiencies in returning to a charging station, resulting in longer paths and reduced working efficiency due to trace mode operations along a boundary wire, which also leads to rut formation.
Innovation Solution
The control apparatus employs a position detector, objective location identifier, route generator, and travel controller to create a target return route using radial lines that minimize distance from the vehicle to the charging station, avoiding the boundary wire when possible, and adjusting for obstacles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the vehicle returns to the charging station by driving along the boundary wire in trace mode, then the vehicle can reliably return to the charging station, but the path length becomes long and working efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of returning to the charging station by tracing the boundary wire from the current position (conventional approach), the invention inverts the approach by first identifying the charging station position, then generating a radial return route from the radial line identified by the radial line identifier. This inversion enables direct path planning to the target rather than following the boundary contour.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from two-dimensional boundary wire tracing to three-dimensional spatial reasoning by imaginarily dividing the working area into multiple radial lines and identifying the radial line on which the charging station is located. This dimensional change enables direct radial navigation to the charging station rather than following the boundary contour, significantly shortening the return path.
2Ease of operation
If the vehicle drives along the boundary wire to return to the charging station, then the vehicle can navigate using magnetic sensors, but rut formation occurs and time is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The invention performs preliminary identification of the charging station position and determination of the appropriate radial line before the vehicle begins its return journey. By pre-calculating the optimal radial return route based on the identified radial line, the system prepares the most efficient path in advance, avoiding time-consuming boundary tracing during the actual return process.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces radial lines as an intermediary conceptual framework between the vehicle's current position and the charging station. These imaginarily divided radial lines serve as mediators that enable direct path calculation, replacing the need for continuous boundary wire tracing and magnetic sensor-dependent navigation along the boundary contour.
3Productivity
If radial lines are used to generate the return route, then the return distance is reduced, but the route generation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the working area into multiple imaginarily divided radial lines radiating from the center, creating a structured framework for route planning. This segmentation transforms the continuous space into discrete angular zones, making it easier to identify which radial line contains the charging station and simplifying the overall route generation process despite the added conceptual structure.
Data Source
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Figure 3
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AI summary
In an apparatus for controlling operation of an autonomously navigating utility vehicle equipped with a prime mover to travel about a working area delineated by a boundary wire in order to perform work autonomously, there are provided with an objective location identifying unit (42) that identifies a location of an objective in the working area, a route generating unit (43) that generates a target return route for the vehicle to return to the objective, and a travel controlling unit (44) that controls operation of the prime mover to make the vehicle travel along the target return route. The route generating unit selects, among a first set of radial lines imaginarily drawn on the working area to radiate from the position of the vehicle and a second set of radial lines imaginarily drawn on the working area to radiate from the objective, a first radial line and a second radial line that result in shortest distance from the position of the vehicle to the objective and generates the target return route by the first radial line and the second radial line.