Angle selection for mower path planning
AssigneeFireFly Automatix, Inc.
InventorsKyle R. Storey, Adam Lawrence Aposhian, Vinayak Ruia, Eric E. Aston
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Techniques are provided for selecting one or more angles for parallel lines of a path a mower will traverse while cutting an area. Each angle can be selected based on its alignment with the boundary of the area to thereby minimize the amount of grass that will remain uncut when the mower traverses a path that includes parallel lines at the selected angle.
Claims20
A method for planning a path for mowing an area, performed by processors, the method comprising:
- identifying a boundary of the area, wherein the boundary is defined by coordinates;
- generating boundary segment vectors for pairs of the coordinates;
- identifying a first angle from a range of angles as a best aligned angle for the boundary;
- creating the path for mowing the area, the path including parallel lines that are oriented in accordance with the best aligned angle;
- and
- providing the path to a mower to cause the mower to mow the area by following the path.
One or more non-transitory computer storage media storing computer executable instructions which when executed implement a method for planning a path for mowing an area, the method comprising:
- identifying a boundary of the area by obtaining coordinates that define the boundary of the area;
- creating boundary segment vectors from pairs of the coordinates;
- for each angle in a range of angles, creating a vector corresponding to the angle and comparing the vector to each of the boundary segment vectors to generate a result for the angle, wherein comparing the vector to each of the boundary segment vectors comprises calculating a dot product and wherein the result for each angle is generated by raising the respective dot products to an even value and summing the raised dot products;
- based on the results for the range of angles, identifying a first angle from the range of angles as a best aligned angle for the boundary;
- creating the path for mowing the area, the path including parallel lines that are oriented in accordance with the best aligned angle;
- and
- providing the path to a mower to cause the mower to mow the area by following the path.
One or more non-transitory computer storage media storing computer executable instructions which when executed implement a method for planning a path for mowing an area, the method comprising:
- identifying a boundary of the area by obtaining coordinates that define the boundary of the area;
- processing the coordinates to identify curvature spikes in the boundary by creating sets of the coordinates and calculating a circle for each set using the coordinates of the set;
- identifying intervening segments between adjacent curvature spikes;
- determining angles of the intervening segments;
- selecting a first angle of the determined angles as a best aligned angle;
- creating the path for mowing the area, the path including parallel lines that are oriented in accordance with the best aligned angle;
- and
- providing the path to a mower to cause the mower to mow the area by following the path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.