Method and device for predictive control of agricultural vehicle systems

A method for controlling an agricultural vehicle system when moving along a course of travel over a field the method comprising:

• providing a field model correlating a field characteristic to a specific location in the field,
• from the field model and at least one previously obtained value for the field characteristic, predicting a value for the field characteristic in front of the agricultural vehicle system thus obtaining an anticipated field characteristic, and
• controlling the agricultural vehicle system at least partly in response to the anticipated field characteristic,
• wherein providing the field model correlating a field characteristic to a specific location in the field includes assuming that field characteristic varies in a continuous manner by taking into account first and second order derivatives of the field model variables and optimizing a cost function that takes account of the difference between a model value and a measured value at a specific location, of the first derivatives in orthogonal directions of the model values and of the second derivatives in orthogonal directions of the model values.

A method for controlling an agricultural vehicle system when moving along a course of travel over a field, the method comprising:

• providing a field model correlating a field characteristic to a specific location in the field,
• from the field model and at least one previously obtained value for the field characteristic, predicting a value for the field characteristic in front of the agricultural vehicle system thus obtaining an anticipated field characteristic, and
• controlling the agricultural vehicle system at least partly in response to the anticipated field characteristic,
• wherein providing the field model correlating a field characteristic to a specific location in the field includes assuming that field characteristic varies in a continuous manner by taking into account first and second order derivatives of the field model variables and summing a factor related to the squared difference between a model value and a measured value at a location in the field, a factor related to the squared first derivative in orthogonal directions of the model values and a factor related to the squared second derivatives in orthogonal directions of the model values.

A method for controlling an agricultural vehicle system when moving along a course of travel over a field, the method comprising:

• providing a field model correlating a field characteristic to a specific location in the field,
• from the field model and at least one previously obtained value for the field characteristic, predicting a value for the field characteristic in front of the agricultural vehicle system thus obtaining an anticipated field characteristic, and
• controlling the agricultural vehicle system at least partly in response to the anticipated field characteristic,
• wherein providing the field model correlating a field characteristic to a specific location in the field includes assuming that field characteristic varies in a continuous manner by taking into account first and second order derivatives of the field model variables;
• and
• wherein predicting the value for the field characteristic in front of the agricultural vehicle system includes calculating field characteristic values in a region around a current location of the agricultural vehicle system determined by a span not larger than 6 columns of known values.