System and method for adjusting gains for position control of a header of an agricultural harvester

A method of adjusting gains in position control of a header of an agricultural harvester, the method comprising:

• controlling, with a computing system, an actuator that adjusts a position of the header relative to a field during a harvesting operation;
• receiving, with the computing system, data indicative of a contour of the field forward of the agricultural harvester relative to a forward direction of travel of the agricultural harvester;
• determining, with the computing system, an aggressiveness of the contour of the field based at least in part on the data indicative of the contour of the field and a current heading of the forward direction of travel of the agricultural harvester relative to the contour of the field;
• determining, with the computing system, an alternate heading of the agricultural harvester based at least in part on the data indicative of the contour of the field,
• the alternate heading being different than the current heading of the forward direction of travel;
• recommending, with the computing system, an adjustment of the current heading of the forward direction of travel to the alternate heading when an effective aggressiveness associated with the alternate heading is less than the aggressiveness associated with the current heading of the forward direction of travel by at least a threshold amount;
• and
• adjusting, with the computing system, a gain that controls the actuator based at least in part on the aggressiveness of the contour of the field and the recommendation.