Method of steering an agricultural vehicle

Abstract

The invention described herein uses the periodicity of the relative height of the surface of a crop or soil surface that is measured over a large area to control the position of a farm vehicle as it passes between rows of crops. The range and angle of return wave energy that are caused by a scanning beam of energy that sweeps across the crop canopy are measured. Signal processing techniques are employed to utilize the range and angle information to derive steering correction signals to control the farm vehicle. There is no contact with the crop and, therefore, there is no entangling with the crop or weeds with the invention. In addition, a plurality of heights are simultaneously determined across the path of the vehicle which are averaged by signal processing techniques. In this manner local anomalies due to weeds, clumps of soil, damaged or missing plants and erosion will not confuse the device or decrease its accuracy.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.