GPS Augmentation With IMU and UAV for Outage Playthrough
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional GPS systems in agricultural operations face limitations in accuracy and are prone to outages due to obstructions and atmospheric events, leading to issues like compaction, overplanting, and missed planting, which affect crop yield.
Innovation Solution
A system that augments GPS information using a combination of inertial measurement units (IMUs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to provide absolute positioning and continue location tracking during GPS outages, ensuring precise planting and operation even in areas with limited GPS availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If GPS is used for location tracking in agricultural operations, then location information can be obtained, but accuracy is limited and outages occur due to obstructions and atmospheric events
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines GPS with inertial measurement units (IMUs) and other positioning systems to create a hybrid positioning system. This merging allows the system to maintain location tracking accuracy and reliability even when GPS signals are obstructed or unavailable, as the IMU provides complementary inertial navigation data that can bridge GPS outages.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically changes positioning parameters by switching between GPS-based positioning and inertial navigation based on signal availability. When GPS accuracy degrades or outages occur, the system transitions to using IMU data with different measurement parameters to maintain continuous location tracking.
2Productivity
If GPS outages occur during farming operations, then location tracking is interrupted, but this leads to compaction issues, overplanting, and missed planting that affect crop yield
Solution Approach 1:
The system prepares for GPS outages by having pre-configured alternative positioning methods (IMU, inertial navigation) ready to activate immediately when GPS signals are lost. This beforehand cushioning ensures that location tracking continues uninterrupted, preventing the compaction, overplanting, and missed planting issues that would otherwise occur during GPS outages.
Solution Approach 2:
The hybrid positioning system ensures continuous location tracking by seamlessly transitioning between GPS and inertial navigation methods. This continuity of useful action prevents interruptions in location data that would lead to operational errors such as repeated planting in the same location or failure to plant in designated areas, thereby maintaining crop yield.
3Measurement precision
If conventional GPS is used alone, then the system is simple, but it cannot provide accurate positioning during obstructions or atmospheric events
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs multi-functional positioning capabilities by integrating GPS, IMU, and inertial navigation into a single hybrid system. This universality allows the system to perform accurate positioning under multiple conditions (clear sky, obstructed views, atmospheric events) without requiring separate systems for each scenario, thereby improving positioning accuracy while managing complexity through integrated design.
Data Source
AI summary
Agricultural machines utilize global positioning systems (GPS) to acquire the location of the machine as well as the location of an event, which may be based upon an operation of the agricultural machine. Because of the possibility of outage and/or inaccuracy of the GPS, a GPS augmentation system can be included with the agricultural machine. The GPS augmentation system can supplement the location determination of the GPS, or can be used in place of the GPS when the GPS is not available. An unmanned vehicle can also be used as part of the augmentation system to provide additional information for the location of the agricultural machine and/or the event.