Computational tools for improving route planning in agricultural field operations.

摘要

In a farming operation, machinery represents a major cost; therefore, good fleet management can have a great impact on the producer's profit, especially considering the increasing costs of fuel and production inputs in recent years. One task that could improve fleet management is planning an optimum route that the machine should take to cover the field while working.;Researchers around the world have proposed methods that approach specific aspects related to route planning, the majority addressing machine field efficiency per-se, which a function of effective working time relative to total time spent in the field. However, wasted inputs due to off-target application areas in the maneuvering regions, especially in oddly shaped agricultural fields, might be as important as field efficiency when it comes down to the total operation cost. Thus, the main purpose of this research was to develop a routing algorithm that accounts for not only machinery field efficiency, but also the supply inputs.;This research was accomplished in a threefold approach where in the first step an algorithm for computing off-target application area was developed, implemented and validated resulting in a computational tool that can be used to evaluate potential savings when using automatic section control on agricultural fields of complex field boundary. This tool was used to investigate the effects of field size and shape as well as machine width on off-target application areas resulting in an empirical method for such estimations based on object shape descriptors. Finally, a routing algorithm was developed and evaluated that took into consideration, costs associated with machine field efficiency as well as off-target application areas.;KEYWORDS: Agricultural Machinery Management, Precision Agriculture, Automatic Section Control, off-target application, Routing Algorithm.