Harvesting Coordination System Optimizing Transport Routes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current harvesting operations in agriculture face inefficiencies due to lack of coordination between harvesters and transport vehicles, leading to prolonged harvesting times, excessive fuel consumption, mechanical wear, soil compaction, and increased stress on operators, as well as potential damage to unharvested crops and suboptimal crop yields.
Innovation Solution
A support system that includes a mapping unit for field geometry and crop yield distribution, a capacity parameter unit for harvester and transport vehicle capacities, and a communication unit to calculate and optimize the unloading position and route for transport vehicles, ensuring timely arrival and minimizing unnecessary travel, thereby coordinating the trajectories of both harvesters and transport vehicles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If transport vehicles drive directly to the harvester without coordination, then the harvester can unload quickly, but transport vehicles may arrive too late or create traffic congestion
Solution Approach 1:
The system calculates and communicates optimized routes to transport vehicles in advance before they need to arrive at the unloading position. This allows transport vehicles to prepare their trajectories beforehand, ensuring timely arrival at the harvester without creating congestion, thus resolving the contradiction between quick unloading and overall harvesting efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the positions of the harvester and transport vehicles, and dynamically adjusts route recommendations based on real-time data. This feedback mechanism ensures that transport vehicles can adapt their trajectories to maintain optimal coordination, preventing both late arrivals and traffic congestion while maximizing unloading efficiency
2Loss of energy
If transport vehicles follow optimized routes, then fuel consumption and mechanical wear are reduced, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The coordination system serves multiple functions: it calculates optimized routes, communicates them to transport vehicles, monitors positions in real-time, and dynamically adjusts trajectories. By consolidating these diverse functions into a single multi-functional system, the patent reduces overall complexity while achieving significant fuel savings and reduced mechanical wear through optimized routing
3Object-affected harmful factors
If transport vehicles drive only in harvested areas, then unharvested crops are protected from damage, but the distance to reach the harvester increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically determines transport vehicle trajectories based on real-time harvester position and field geometry. By continuously adapting the recommended routes as the harvester moves through different areas of the field, the system enables transport vehicles to reach the unloading position through the shortest possible path that remains within already-harvested areas, thus protecting crops while minimizing travel distance
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention related to a support system for providing support in a harvesting operation in an agricultural field, said harvesting operation involving a harvester and one or more transport vehicles for transporting harvested crops; wherein said support system comprises: a mapping unit configured for receiving information associated with coordinates relating to the geometry of said agricultural field; and for receiving information relating to an estimated crop yield distribution of said agricultural field; a capacity parameter unit configured for i) receiving one or more capacity parameters relating to the capacity of said harvester; and for ii) receiving one or more capacity parameters relating to the capacity of each of said one or more transport vehicles; a communication unit configured to receive information relating to the current position of each of said one or more transport vehicles; a calculation unit configured for calculating, on the basis of the information received by said mapping unit, said capacity parameter unit and said communication unit: A) the unload position of the harvester at a point where the crop tank of said harvester need to be emptied; and B) in respect of such an unload position, and in relation to the current position of each available transport vehicle, an optimized route to be driven in respect of each of said one or more available transport vehicles in order to arrive at an unload location for unload of crops from said harvester; and C) from the group of available transport vehicles, selecting that specific transport vehicle which will be able to arrive at said unload location in the least amount of time; and providing instructions relating to said optimized route to be followed by said specific transport vehicle.