Road maintenance using stored maintenance passes

A method of maintaining an unpaved road comprising:

• performing a first maintenance pass on the unpaved road with a first work vehicle under the manual control of an operator, the first maintenance pass altering a surface of the road using a blade of the first work vehicle;
• sensing a plurality of positions of the blade of the first work vehicle during the first maintenance pass;
• sensing a plurality of positions of the first work vehicle during the first maintenance pass;
• creating a stored maintenance pass using the sensed plurality of positions of the blade of the first work vehicle and the sensed plurality of positions of the first work vehicle during the first maintenance pass, the stored maintenance pass indicative of a position of the blade associated with a position of the vehicle during the first maintenance pass for the plurality of positions of the vehicle;
• and
• performing a second maintenance pass on the unpaved road with a second work vehicle, the second maintenance pass performed after the first maintenance pass, the second maintenance pass altering the surface of the road using a blade of the second work vehicle, a position of the blade of the second work vehicle automatically controlled during the second maintenance pass by a controller using the stored maintenance pass and a current position of the second work vehicle, wherein
• the controller determines a future position of the second work vehicle using a current position of the second work vehicle, a speed of the second work vehicle, and a heading of the second work vehicle;
• the controller determines a target blade position using the stored maintenance pass by selecting a position of the blade during the first maintenance pass associated with a position of the vehicle during the first maintenance pass that is most proximate to the future position of the second work vehicle;
• and
• the controller automatically moves the blade toward the target blade position during the second maintenance pass.