Machine control through active ground terrain mapping
AssigneeDeere & Company
InventorJustin Borgstadt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A pose detection sensor, of a mobile agricultural machine, generates, for various points along a route traveled by the mobile machine, signals indicative of a pose of the pose detection sensor. A point cloud is identified, based on the signals generated by the pose detection sensor, the point cloud including a set of points that are estimated to correspond to a surface of the ground over which the mobile machine travels. Elevation values are generated for each point in the point cloud. In some examples, a plane is calculated based on the points in the point cloud, the plane including predictive elevation values of the ground surface ahead of the mobile machine.
Claims18
A mobile agricultural machine comprising:
- a controllable subsystem;
- a pose detection sensor that identifies a geographic position and an orientation of the pose detection sensor at various points along a route which the mobile agricultural machine travels and generates, for each various point along the route, a position signal and an orientation signal indicative of the position and orientation of the pose detection sensor, respectively;
- one or more processors;
- and
- a data store that stores computer executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- identify, based on the position signals and the orientation signals generated by the pose detection sensor, a point cloud with a set of points that are estimated to correspond to a surface of ground over which the mobile agricultural machine has traveled during the route;
- generate an elevation value for each point in the point cloud;
- identify, based on the set of points in the point cloud, a plane that runs through the point cloud and forward of the mobile agricultural machine, the plane providing a predictive elevation value of ground surface ahead of the mobile agricultural machine;
- and
- control the controllable subsystem based on the predictive elevation value provided by the plane.
A computer implemented method of controlling a mobile agricultural machine, the computer implemented method comprising:
- detecting a geographic position and an orientation of a pose detection sensor at various points along a route which the mobile agricultural machine travels;
- generating, for each various point along the route, a position signal and an orientation signal, with the pose detection sensor, indicative of the detected geographic position and orientation of the pose detection sensor;
- identifying, based on the position signals and the orientation signals generated by the pose detection sensor, a point cloud with a set of points that are estimated to correspond to a surface of ground over which the mobile agricultural machine has travelled during the route;
- generating an elevation value for each point in the point cloud;
- identifying, based on the set of points in the point cloud, a plane that runs through the point cloud and forward of the mobile agricultural machine, the plane providing a predictive elevation value of ground surface ahead of the mobile agricultural machine;
- and
- controlling a controllable subsystem of the mobile agricultural machine based on the predictive elevation value in the plane.
An agricultural system comprising:
- a controllable subsystem;
- a pose detection sensor that identifies a geographic position and an orientation of the pose detection sensor at various points along a route which a mobile agricultural machine travels and generates, for each various point along the route, a position signal and an orientation signal indicative of the position and orientation of the pose detection sensor, respectively;
- one or more processors;
- and
- a data store that stores a set of computer executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- identify, based on the position signals and the orientation signals generated by the pose detection sensor, a point cloud with a set of points that are estimated to correspond to a surface of the ground over which the mobile agricultural machine has traveled during the route;
- generate an elevation value for each point in the point cloud;
- identify, based on the set of points in the point cloud, a plane that runs through the point cloud and forward of the mobile agricultural machine, the plane providing predictive elevation values of ground surface ahead of the mobile agricultural machine;
- and
- control the controllable subsystem based on the predictive elevation values of the ground surface ahead of the mobile agricultural machine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.