Methods for optimizing path planning for agricultural vehicles

A method for optimizing a route for execution by a system that controls one or more agricultural vehicles comprising:

• defining an area of land to be worked by the one or more agricultural vehicles;
• creating a plurality of passes that completely cover the area of land, wherein each pass comprises a first end and a second end;
• transforming each first end and each second end of each of the plurality of passes into a plurality of nodes;
• connecting the plurality of nodes to create one or more possible routes;
• computing a distance matrix by calculating distances between every possible pair of nodes for each of the one or more possible routes;
• computing a time matrix by calculating times required to travel between every possible pair of nodes for each of the one or more possible routes;
• applying constraints configured to ensure that each of the plurality of passes is worked exactly once by the one or more agricultural vehicles and also configured to ensure that time window requirements are met;
• formulating a non-convex optimization problem incorporating the distance matrix, the time matrix, the constraints, and the time window requirements, the non-convex optimization problem having one or more solutions;
• determining that a feasible solution to the non-convex optimization problem exists;
• and
• solving the non-convex optimization problem to create an optimized route for controlling the one or more agricultural vehicles.

A method for optimizing a route for execution by a system that controls one or more agricultural vehicles comprising:

• defining an area of land to be worked by the one or more agricultural vehicles;
• creating a plurality of passes that completely cover the area of land, wherein each pass comprises a first end and a second end;
• transforming each first end and each second end of each of the plurality of passes into a plurality of nodes;
• connecting the plurality of nodes to create one or more possible routes;
• computing a distance matrix by calculating distances between every possible pair of nodes for each of the one or more possible routes;
• computing a time matrix by calculating times required to travel between every possible pair of nodes for each of the one or more possible routes;
• the time and distance matrix does not have to be computed in any particular order applying constraints configured to ensure that each of the plurality of passes is worked exactly once by the one or more agricultural vehicles and also configured to ensure that time window requirements are met;
• formulating a non-convex optimization problem incorporating the distance matrix, the time matrix, the constraints, and the time window requirements, the non-convex optimization problem having one or more solutions;
• determining that a feasible solution to the non-convex optimization problem exists;
• and
• solving the non-convex optimization problem using Grover's Algorithm to create an optimized route for controlling the one or more agricultural vehicles.