Autonomous Utility Vehicle Cell-Based Servicing Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing control apparatuses for autonomously navigating utility vehicles fail to ensure uniform servicing of working areas, leading to disparities in regions serviced at high and low frequencies when operating in random driving modes, which can result in uneven lawn or grass mowing and increased load on the mowing unit.
Innovation Solution
An electronic control unit with a CPU and memory that generates a working area map divided into cells, detects vehicle positions, counts servicing frequencies of each cell, and sets target cells based on average and predetermined values to guide the vehicle to areas with lower servicing frequencies, ensuring uniform coverage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the utility vehicle turns in random directions every time it reaches the boundary wire, then the control system remains simple, but disparity arises between working area regions serviced at high and low frequency
Solution Approach 1:
The working area is divided into multiple cells forming a grid map, allowing the system to track and analyze servicing frequency in discrete regions. This segmentation enables identification of specific areas with low servicing frequency without requiring complex continuous analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-generates a working area map divided into cells before operation begins. During operation, it continuously counts and memorizes passage times for each cell, preparing the data structure needed to identify target cells with low servicing frequency in advance.
Solution Approach 3:
The system uses feedback from counted passage times to dynamically select target cells with low servicing frequency. This feedback mechanism guides the vehicle to turn toward specific target cells rather than random directions, correcting the uneven servicing distribution while maintaining relatively simple control logic.
2Productivity
If the vehicle services areas with high frequency first, then those areas are well-maintained, but areas with low servicing frequency are neglected and show greater height differences
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuing to service areas in their current order or prioritizing easily accessible areas, the system inverts the approach by selecting target cells with the lowest servicing frequency. This ensures that neglected areas receive attention first, reversing the natural tendency to over-service already-frequent areas.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different servicing priorities to different local regions based on their specific needs. Areas with low passage times are identified as target cells requiring more attention, while areas with high passage times are serviced less frequently, creating locally optimized servicing quality throughout the working area.
Data Source
AI summary
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 line, there are provided with a map generating unit that that generates a working area map comprised of an array of a plurality of cells, a memory unit that counts and memorizes a number of times the vehicle passes over each of the cells based on the detected vehicle position; a target cell setting unit that selects one of the cells based on the memorized counted number and sets the selected one as a target cell; and a travel controlling unit that controls operation of the prime mover to make the vehicle travel about the working area until the vehicle has reached the boundary line, and make the vehicle turn toward the target cell and then travel straight forward when the vehicle has reached the boundary line.