Forage Harvesting Route Planning for Collision-Free Multi-Machine Coordination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing route planning systems for agricultural machines fail to effectively coordinate the complex relationships and timing of different machines in a feeding process chain, leading to inefficient and collision-prone operations on a territory, with a lack of consideration for soil-friendly processing and minimal territory crossings.
Innovation Solution
A route planning system that generates both common and individualized route plans for agricultural machines, allowing for flexible adjustments and ensuring efficient, collision-free operations by integrating data transfer devices for dynamic route adjustments based on real-time conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple agricultural machines operate simultaneously in the same area, then productivity increases, but collision risk and operational coordination difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the territory to be cultivated into multiple zones and assigns specific zones to different agricultural machines. The route planning system divides the overall harvesting area into manageable sections, allowing multiple machines to operate simultaneously in different zones without collision risk, thereby maintaining high productivity while ensuring safe operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The route planning system acts as an intermediary between multiple agricultural machines, coordinating their movements and operations. It generates individualized route plans for each machine and provides central oversight, mediating potential conflicts before they occur and enabling multiple machines to work together efficiently without collisions.
2Ease of operation
If agricultural machines follow fixed route plans, then operational simplicity increases, but adaptability to changing conditions decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The route planning system implements dynamic route planning that adapts to changing conditions in real-time. While machines follow structured route plans for operational simplicity, the system continuously monitors crop moisture content, machine positions, and environmental conditions, automatically adjusting routes and coordinates when changes are detected, thus maintaining both ease of operation and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where sensors on agricultural machines and in the environment continuously provide data about actual conditions. This feedback loop allows the route planning system to detect changes in crop moisture, machine status, or terrain conditions and dynamically adjust route plans accordingly, balancing structured operation with adaptive response.
3Productivity
If the same area is cultivated multiple times, then harvesting completeness improves, but soil compaction and damage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system optimizes routing in multiple dimensions simultaneously - considering not only the spatial path but also the temporal sequence and vertical layering of harvesting operations. By analyzing the three-dimensional structure of the territory and planning routes that minimize overlapping passes, the system achieves complete harvesting while reducing the number of times machines traverse the same area, thereby minimizing soil compaction.
Solution Approach 2:
The route planning system performs preliminary analysis of the territory characteristics, crop distribution, and machine capabilities before generating routes. It pre-identifies areas that require multiple passes and plans the sequence and timing of these passes to minimize soil impact, ensuring harvesting completeness while protecting soil structure through optimized preliminary route design.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a route planning system (50) which is designed and configured to create the route plan (51a,b) of a forage harvesting process chain (13), wherein the forage harvesting process chain (13) comprises a plurality of agricultural machines (31) which perform a forage harvesting process (1) in a predetermined sequence, wherein the forage harvesting process (1) comprises successive process steps (2) and each process step (2) is performed by a number of the plurality of agricultural machines (31), and the route planning system (50) is further designed and configured to generate a common route plan (51a, 51b, 52) for the agricultural machines (31) of the forage harvesting process chain (13) and/or an individualized route plan (51a, 51b, 53) for each agricultural machine (31).