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US 12,608,003 B2Granted
Material detection and handling of material irregularities
AssigneeAGCO International GmbH
InventorTobias Blume
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems for guiding movement of an agricultural system within a field including sensor data indicative of an environment of the agricultural system used to identify a material profile along which the agricultural system shall be guided, one or more properties of the material profile determined from the sensor data and in particular properties indicative of an irregularity in the material profile, determination of a correcting path segment for guiding movement of the agricultural system with respect to the material profile irregularity, and movement of the agricultural system controlled along the determined correcting path segment.
Claims15
A method of guiding movement of an agricultural system within a field, the method comprising:
- receiving sensor data indicative of an environment of an agricultural system, the sensor data comprising two-dimensional (2D) image data and three-dimensional (3D) image data;
- fusing the 2D image data and the 3D image data and identifying overlapping edges by identifying which edges from the 3D image data overlap with edges from the 2D image data;
- merging the overlapping edges of the 3D image data and the 2D image data into merged edges;
- identifying, from the sensor data and based at least partially on the merged edges, a material profile of a swath windrow of previously processed crop material along which the agricultural system shall be guided;
- determining at least one property of the material profile from the sensor data indicative of an irregularity in the material profile;
- determining whether a global path is available, wherein the global path is predetermined based at least partially on at least one of:
- previous operations performed within the environment;
- and
- previously collected sensed data of the environment;
- responsive to a determination that the global path is available, determining a correcting path segment with respect to the global path for guiding movement of the agricultural system with respect to the irregularity in the material profile;
- responsive to a determination that the global path is not available, performing one or more alternative path planning procedures, comprising:
- determining whether the agricultural system is located in a headland of the environment;
- determining whether a field contour is available;
- based at least partially on whether or not the agricultural system is determined to be located in a headland of the environment and whether or not a field contour is available, determining an alternative correcting path segment;
- and
- controlling movement of the agricultural system along one of the correcting path segment or the alternative correcting path segment.
13 more elements
A control system for controlling movement of an agricultural system within a field, the control system comprising one or more controllers configured to:
- receive sensor data indicative of an environment of an agricultural system, the sensor data comprising two-dimensional (2D) image data and three-dimensional (3D) image data;
- fusing the 2D image data and the 3D image data and identifying overlapping edges by identifying which edges from the 3D image data overlap with edges from the 2D image data;
- merging the overlapping edges of the 3D image data and the 2D image data into merged edges;
- identify, from the sensor data and based at least partially on the merged edges, a material profile of a swath windrow of previously processed crop material along which movement of the agricultural system shall be guided;
- determine at least one property of the material profile indicative of an irregularity in the material profile;
- determine whether a global path is available, wherein the global path is predetermined based at least partially on at least one of:
- previous operations performed within the environment;
- and
- previously collected sensed data of the environment;
- responsive to a determination that the global path is available, determine a correcting path segment with respect to the global path for guiding movement of the agricultural system with respect to the determined material profile irregularity;
- responsive to a determination that the global path is not available, perform one or more alternative path planning procedures, comprising,
- determining whether or not the agricultural system is located in a headland of the environment;
- determining whether a field contour is available;
- based at least partially on whether or not the agricultural system is determined to be located in a headland of the environment and whether or not a field contour is available, determining an alternative correcting path segment;
- and
- control movement of the agricultural system along one of the correcting path segment or the alternative correcting path segment.
13 more elements
An agricultural system comprising:
- a control system comprising one or more controllers configured to:
- receive sensor data indicative of an environment of an agricultural system, the sensor data comprising two-dimensional (2D) image data and three-dimensional (3D) image data;
- fuse the 2D image data and the 3D image data and identify overlapping edges by identifying which edges from the 3D image data overlap with edges from the 2D image data;
- merge the overlapping edges of the 3D image data and the 2D image data into merged edges;
- identify, from the sensor data and based at least partially on the merged edges, a material profile of a swath windrow of previously processed crop material along which movement of the agricultural system shall be guided;
- determine at least one property of the material profile indicative of an irregularity in the material profile;
- determine whether a global path is available, wherein the global path is predetermined based at least partially on at least one of:
- previous operations performed within the environment;
- and
- previously collected sensed data of the environment;
- responsive to a determination that the global path is available, determine a correcting path segment with respect to the global path for guiding movement of the agricultural system with respect to the determined material profile irregularity;
- responsive to a determination that the global path is not available, perform one or more alternative path planning procedures, comprising:
- determining whether or not the agricultural system is located in a headland of the environment;
- determining whether a field contour is available;
- and
- based at least partially on whether or not the agricultural system is determined to be located in a headland of the environment and whether or not a field contour is available, determining an alternative correcting path segment;
- and
- control movement of the agricultural system along one of the correcting path segment or the alternative correcting path segment.
15 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.