Lateral Error Crop-Row Guidance for Wheel Contact Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional guidance systems for agricultural machines fail to detect when wheels run over crop rows, leading to damage and inability to adjust control based on such incidents, and struggle to differentiate between crop damage caused by wheel contact and other factors.
Innovation Solution
A system that includes a perception processing unit to detect machine and crop boundaries, determine lateral error, and control the machine's steering and speed based on this error, using imaging or distance measurement devices to monitor wheel positions relative to crop rows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional guidance systems are used to guide machines through crop fields, then the machines can travel through the fields, but the systems fail to detect when wheels run over crop rows causing damage
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the lateral position of the machine relative to crop rows and provides feedback control by adjusting steering and speed. The perception processing unit detects boundaries and calculates lateral error, which feeds back to the control system to prevent wheel-crop contact, creating a closed-loop control system that actively prevents damage rather than merely detecting it.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary detection system (imaging or distance measurement devices) that acts as a mediator between the machine and the crop. This intermediary system detects the presence and position of crop rows and machine boundaries, translating physical spatial relationships into detectable signals that enable precise lateral error calculation and control adjustments.
2Device complexity
If conventional guidance systems operate without lateral error detection, then the system structure remains simple, but the ability to adjust control based on wheel-crop contact is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts machine operation by continuously calculating lateral error and modifying steering and speed in real-time. Rather than using fixed pre-programmed paths, the control system adapts its behavior based on real-time perception of crop row positions and machine boundaries, enabling dynamic response to varying field conditions while maintaining a relatively simple overall system architecture.
3Device complexity
If no lateral error measurement is performed, then the measurement system remains simple, but the ability to differentiate between crop damage caused by wheel contact and other factors is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical monitoring systems with optical or electromagnetic sensing systems (imaging devices or distance measurement devices). These non-contact sensing systems detect crop rows and machine boundaries by measuring light reflection or electromagnetic wave return, substituting mechanical proximity sensors with more sophisticated but non-intrusive sensing methods that provide precise lateral position data without physical contact.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media for controlling a machine based on a lateral error. A system includes a control system or a user interface (UI), and processing circuitry configured to cause the system to detect a machine detection boundary and a crop detection boundary, the machine detection boundary being of a support structure of a machine, and the crop detection boundary being of a row of plant material, determine a lateral error represented by a first distance between the machine detection boundary and the crop detection boundary, and control the control system or the UI based on the lateral error.