Safe autonomous agricultural machine
AssigneeZF Friedrichshafen AG
InventorChen Zhihu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system includes a series of converters provided along a boundary of an agricultural cultivated area. A converter is configured to emit a second signal in response to an incoming first signal. The system also includes an autonomously driving agricultural machine including a transmitting device configured to emit the first signal in an environment of the agricultural machine, a receiving device configured to receive the second signal emitted in response to the first signal, and a processing device configured to determine a position of the agricultural machine with respect to the boundary based on the received second signal. An arrangement and/or a conversion characteristic of converters is designed differently at a first section of the boundary than at a second section of the boundary.
Claims11
A system, comprising:
- a series of converters arranged along a boundary of an agricultural cultivated area, wherein each converter of the series of converters is configured to emit a second signal in response to an incoming first signal;
- an autonomously driving agricultural machine including a transmitting device configured to emit the first signal in an environment of the agricultural machine, a receiving device configured to receive the second signal emitted in response to the first signal by a converter of the series of converters, and a processing device configured to determine a position of the agricultural machine with respect to the boundary based on the received second signal,
- wherein an arrangement and/or a conversion characteristic of converters is different at a first section of the boundary than at a second section of the boundary.
A method for determining a position of an agricultural machine with respect to a boundary of an agricultural cultivated area, comprising:
- arranging a series of converters along the boundary of the agricultural cultivated area, wherein each converter of the series of converters is configured to emit a second signal in response to an incoming first signal;
- emitting at least one first signal in an environment of the agricultural machine;
- receiving at least one second signal emitted in response to the at least one first signal;
- and
- determining the position of the agricultural machine based on the at least one received second signal.
A control device for an agricultural machine, which is configured to autonomously drive on an agricultural cultivated area, the control device comprising:
- a transmitting device configured to emit at least one first signal in an environment of the agricultural machine toward one or more converters of a series of converters arranged along a boundary of the agricultural cultivated area, each of the series of converters being configured to receive the at least one first signal and emit a second signal in response thereto;
- a receiving device configured to receive a plurality of second signals that have been emitted in response to the at least one first signal;
- a memory device configured to store positions of the one or more converters of the first signal in the second signal along the boundary of the cultivated area;
- and
- a processing device configured to determine a position of the agricultural machine with respect to the boundary based on one or more of the plurality of received second signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.