Crop Row Curvature Sensing for Predictive Vehicle Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing agricultural vehicle steering systems fail to account for crop row curvature, leading to deviations from the desired path, crop damage, and inefficient resource use due to reactive steering corrections, particularly in curved rows.
Innovation Solution
A system that determines crop row curvature and uses it as an input for enhanced vehicle guidance, incorporating curvature measurements projected to the vehicle axles to improve positioning and reduce overrunning and damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If instantaneous corrections based on measured wheel position or orientation errors are used for steering control, then the steering system can navigate the agricultural vehicle, but significant discrepancies in estimating XTE and TKE are encountered on curved rows, causing path deviation and crop damage
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by determining crop row curvature in advance using multiple measured positions and projecting this curvature information to the vehicle axles. This allows the steering controller to predict future position and orientation errors before the vehicle actually encounters them, enabling proactive rather than reactive steering corrections and eliminating the need for instantaneous corrections that cause path deviation on curved rows
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by continuously measuring the agricultural vehicle's position and orientation relative to crop rows at multiple positions, using these measurements to determine actual crop row curvature, and feeding this curvature information back to the steering controller for continuous adjustment of steering commands
2Reliability
If the steering controller uses TKE and XTE as parameters for guidance, then the agricultural vehicle can be guided from off-path position toward alignment with the guidance path when close to the path, but the vehicle deviates from the desired path when positioned far from the guidance path
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes parameters by transitioning from using only instantaneous TKE and XTE parameters to incorporating determined crop row curvature as an additional parameter. This curvature parameter provides information about the future path geometry, allowing the steering controller to adapt its guidance strategy based on both current position error and expected future path characteristics, thereby improving reliability across all vehicle positions
3Productivity
If reactive steering corrections are applied to navigate the agricultural vehicle, then the vehicle can correct off-path positions, but the path of the vehicle deviates from the desired path resulting in overrunning of crop rows and crop damage
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary action by determining crop row curvature in advance and using this information to predict future position and orientation errors before they occur. This allows the steering controller to proactively adjust steering commands to prevent path deviation and crop overrunning, rather than reacting after the vehicle has already deviated from the desired path
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements preliminary anti-action by using determined crop row curvature to anticipate and counteract forces that would cause the vehicle to overrun crop rows. The steering controller applies corrective steering moments based on projected curvature information before the vehicle encounters the curved section, preventing the harmful effect of crop damage
Data Source
AI summary
An autonomous vehicle control system includes one or more sensors configured for coupling with an agricultural vehicle, the one or more sensors configured to determine kinematics of the agricultural vehicle relative to a crop row. The system includes a guidance control module configured to coordinate steering of one or more steering mechanisms of the agricultural vehicle. The guidance control module includes a sensor input configured to receive kinematics of the agricultural vehicle, a vehicle kinematics comparator configured to determine one or more error values using the received vehicle kinematics, a crop curvature generator configured to determine crop row curvature using the one or more error values, and a steering interface configured to provide instructions to a vehicle steering controller to guide the agricultural vehicle using the crop row curvature.