Work area zone boundary demarcation apparatus of autonomously navigating work machine

A work zone boundary demarcation apparatus to demarcate boundaries that divide a work area to be serviced by at least one autonomously navigating work machine into multiple zones, comprising:

• a computer having at least a processor, a memory, an input-output circuit and a simulation program loaded in the memory to simulate work of the work machine in the work area, wherein
• the processor is configured to perform:
• demarcating the boundaries that divide the work area into the multiple zones;
• executing simulation of work of the work machine in the multiple zones divided by the boundaries as demarcated;
• equalizing work times of the work machine when dividing and servicing the work area by:
• when it is determined from the results of the simulation that an unserviced region remains in any of the multiple zones, re-demarcating the boundaries as demarcated so as to include the unserviced region in an area adjacent to the unserviced region;
• improving efficiency of the machine by equalizing work times of the work machine using the boundaries as re-demarcated;
• and
• displaying the multiple zones divided by the boundaries as re-demarcated.

A work zone boundary demarcation method to demarcate boundaries that divide a work area to be serviced by at least one autonomously navigating work machine into multiple zones, comprising the steps of:

• demarcating the boundaries that divide the work area into the multiple zones;
• executing simulation of work of the work machine in the multiple zones divided by the boundaries as demarcated;
• equalizing work times of the work machine when dividing and servicing the work area by re-demarcating the boundaries when workloads of the multiple zones divided by the boundaries are determined not to be equal based on results of the simulation,
• improving efficiency of the work machine by equalizing work times of the work machine using the boundaries as re-demarcated;
• and
• displaying the multiple zones divided by the boundaries as re-demarcated.