System and a method for determining a trajectory to be followed by an agricultural work vehicle

A support system for determining a trajectory to be followed by an agricultural work vehicle, when working a field, the system comprises:

• a mapping unit including at least one processor configured to enable the mapping unit to receive:
• i) coordinates relating to boundaries of a field to be worked;
• and
• ii) coordinates relating to boundaries of one or more obstacles to be avoided by the work vehicle;
• wherein the one or more obstacles are located within the field;
• a capacity parameter unit including the at least one processor configured to enable the capacity parameter unit to receive one or more capacity parameters relating to the work vehicle;
• a trajectory calculating unit including the at least one processor configured to enable the trajectory calculating unit to calculate an optimized trajectory to be followed by the work vehicle;
• wherein the optimized trajectory is calculated on a basis of the coordinates received by the mapping unit;
• and
• one or more of the one or more capacity parameters received by the capacity parameter unit;
• wherein the support system is configured to find the optimized trajectory by a heuristic method comprising at least one of a greedy heuristic method, a tabu search solver, an ant colony solver, or a genetic algorithm;
• and
• wherein the trajectory calculating unit is configured to perform the following acts:
• a) approximating the coordinates relating to the boundaries of the field to be worked to a boundary polygon;
• and wherein the support system is configured to determine the trajectory to be followed, based on that approximation;
• b) approximating the coordinates relating to the boundaries of each of the one or more obstacles, to respective obstacle polygons;
• and wherein the support system is configured to determine the trajectory to be followed, based on that approximation;
• c) defining one or more headlands located immediately within the boundary polygon;
• d) in respect of each obstacle polygon, defining one or more headlands surrounding the obstacle polygon;
• e) defining a work area that corresponds to an area within the boundary polygon with exclusion of an area corresponding to any headlands and with exclusion of an area corresponding to any obstacle polygon;
• f) in respect of orientation of one or more sides of headlands, define an array of parallel working rows located within the work area;
• g) in respect of one or more arrays of parallel working rows defined in act f), define an array of possible continuous driving paths by connecting separate entities, wherein the separate entities is either headlands, or parts of a headland, and working rows, or parts of a working row;
• so as to define possible continuous driving paths, wherein each driving path is covering all headlands and all working rows;
• h) in respect of each of more possible continuous driving paths defined in act g), calculate an associated cost parameter, the calculated cost parameter being representative of efficiency by following that specific continuous driving path;
• and
• i) select as the trajectory to be followed, that specific continuous driving path exhibiting the highest efficiency.