Comparative agricultural obstacle monitor and guidance system and method for same

An agricultural vehicle monitoring system comprising:

• first and second noncontact sensors configured for coupling with an agricultural vehicle, the first noncontact sensor configured to generate a first output indicative of a first environmental characteristic based on scan line data, and the second noncontact sensor configured to generate a second output indicative of a second environmental characteristic, the first noncontact sensor configured to sense multiple objects along a scan line, the first noncontact sensor includes:
• a scan line generator configured to generate the scan line;
• wherein the scan line generator is oriented to generate the scan line transverse to one or more crop rows;
• and
• a scan line receiver configured to receive a reflection of the scan line to generate the scan line data;
• and
• a comparative vehicle monitor in communication with the first and second noncontact sensors, the comparative vehicle monitor configured to:
• select the first output or the second output based on a specified condition indicative of reliability of the scan line data;
• and
• determine a vehicle position of the agricultural vehicle relative to at least one of crop row according to the selected first or second output.

A method for an agricultural vehicle monitoring system, the method comprising:

• detecting first and second environmental characteristics using respective first and second noncontact sensors, a first output of the first noncontact sensor being indicative of the first environmental characteristic based on scan line data, a second output of the second noncontact sensor being indicative of the second environmental characteristic;
• filtering the first output based on information derived from the second output, the filtering being an indicator of a relative quality of the output of each sensor;
• and
• determining a vehicle position of the agricultural vehicle relative to at least one of the first and second environmental characteristics based on filtered output of the first and second noncontact sensors.