Forwarder Path Planning for Harvested Material Location
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Solution Overview
Problem
Operators of forwarders face inefficiencies and hazards while locating harvested material in work areas due to reliance on trial and error or incomplete information, leading to reduced power consumption and equipment efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilizes harvester electronics to receive and transmit material data, including location information, and forwarder electronics to determine a preferential path plan based on economic cost factors and background data, minimizing energy consumption and optimizing route planning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If operators use trial and error or visual identification to locate harvested material, then they can find the material without additional equipment, but power consumption increases and efficiency decreases due to unsuccessful attempts
Solution Approach 1:
The harvester performs preliminary actions by recording material location data when depositing harvested material, storing this information in a database before the forwarder needs to locate it. This preliminary data collection eliminates the need for trial-and-error searching, directly improving forwarder efficiency while reducing power consumption through optimized routing.
Solution Approach 2:
A communication system acts as an intermediary between the harvester and forwarder, transmitting material location data from the harvester to the forwarder. This intermediary data transmission enables the forwarder to navigate directly to material locations without wasting energy on unsuccessful search attempts, resolving the contradiction between productivity and energy use.
2Loss of time
If operators rely on past experience or intuition to find harvested material, then no additional technology is required, but the process becomes time-consuming and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
A communication system serves as an intermediary, transmitting material location data from the harvester's recording system to the forwarder's navigation system. This data-mediated approach replaces time-consuming trial-and-error or experience-based searching with direct information transfer, significantly reducing time loss while adding only moderate system complexity through communication hardware and database storage.
3Reliability
If operators develop routes ad hoc without complete information, then the system remains simple to operate, but the forwarder encounters hazards and impassible areas requiring path revision
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary path planning by storing material location data and background terrain information in advance, then using this pre-prepared information to generate reliable routes before the forwarder begins operation. This preliminary data preparation and automated path planning significantly improve route reliability by avoiding hazards, while the computational complexity is managed through software algorithms rather than physical system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for locating harvested material comprises receiving material data including material location data on a material location of harvested material within a work area. Background data is obtained. A location-determining receiver determines a forwarder location of a forwarder. An estimator estimates economic cost factors associated with corresponding candidate paths or segments of candidate paths between the forwarder location and the material location. A selector selects a preferential planned path between the forwarder location and the material location consistent with the material data, background data, and minimization of the economic cost factors.