Automatic driving method of an agricultural machine, apparatus and system, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12554267-B2
Application number	US-202218270380-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2022
Priority date	Nov 11, 2022
Publication date	Feb 17, 2026
Grant date	Feb 17, 2026

Abstract

This disclosure relates to an automatic driving method, apparatus and system, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and relates to the field of agricultural machine automatic driving. The automatic driving method includes acquiring a trajectory of travel of an agricultural machine on a current row and an image of an operated area of a farm implement connected with the agricultural machine on the current row; determining a boundary of the operated area of the farm implement on the current row according to the image of the operated area of the farm implement on the current row; determining an operating width of the farm implement; and determining a space between a trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on a next row and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An automatic driving method, comprising:
acquiring a trajectory of travel of an agricultural machine on a current row and an image of an actual operated area of a farm implement connected with the agricultural machine on the current row, wherein the farm implement is mounted behind the agricultural machine along a direction of travel of the agricultural machine, and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row is a line connected by multiple points of positioning information of the agricultural machine obtained during travelling of the agricultural machine on the actual operated area; determining a boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row according to the image of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row; determining an actual operating width of the farm implement according to the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row and the actual boundary of the operated area of the farm implement on the current row, wherein the actual operating width of the farm implement is different from a size of the farm implement and comprises an actual left operating width and an actual right operating width of the farm implement on two sides of the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row, the actual left operating width being a distance between a left boundary of the actual operated area and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row, the actual right operating width being a distance between a right boundary of the actual operated area and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row, and the actual left operating width being not equal to the actual right operating width; determining a space between a trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on a next row and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row according to the actual operating width of the farm implement and a blank space between the current row and the next row, comprising: in a case where the direction of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row is the same as the direction of travel of the agricultural machine on the next row, determining the space between the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the next row and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row according to a sum of the actual left operating width of the farm implement, the actual right operating width of the farm implement, and the blank space between the current row and the next row, and in a case where the direction of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row is different from the direction of travel of the agricultural machine on the next row, determining the space between the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the next row and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row according to a sum of twice the actual left operating width or the actual right operating width on a same side of the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row as the next row and the blank space between the current row and the next row; and controlling the agricultural machine to travel according to the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the next row which is determined by the space.

2 . The automatic driving method according to claim 1 , wherein the left boundary or the right boundary of the actual operated area comprises a plurality of trajectory points, and the determining an actual operating width of the farm implement according to the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row and the boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row comprises:
determining the actual left operating width or the actual right operating width of the farm implement according to an average value of vertical distances between the plurality of trajectory points of the left boundary or the right boundary of the actual operated area and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row.

3 . The automatic driving method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining an operating width of the farm implement according to the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row and the boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row comprises:
determining an actual operating width of the farm implement in a global coordinate system, according to a trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row in the global coordinate system and a boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row in the global coordinate system.

4 . The automatic driving method according to claim 3 , wherein the acquiring an image of an actual operated area of a farm implement connected with the agricultural machine on the current row comprises:
acquiring the image of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row from a camera mounted on the agricultural machine.

5 . The automatic driving method according to claim 4 , wherein the determining a boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row according to the image of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row comprises:
determining the boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row in a camera coordinate system of the camera according to the image of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row; and determining the boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row in the global coordinate system according to the boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row in the camera coordinate system, and a coordinate and a rotation parameter of the camera in the global coordinate system.

6 . The automatic driving method according to claim 5 , wherein the acquiring a trajectory of travel of an agricultural machine on a current row comprises:
acquiring the positioning information of the agricultural machine from a positioning apparatus mounted on the agricultural machine; and determining the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row in the global coordinate system according to the positioning information of the agricultural machine.

7 . An automatic driving apparatus, comprising:
a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to perform, based on instructions stored in the memory, an automatic driving method comprising: acquiring a trajectory of travel of an agricultural machine on a current row and an image of an actual operated area of a farm implement connected with the agricultural machine on the current row, wherein the farm implement is mounted behind the agricultural machine along a direction of travel of the agricultural machine, and the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row is a line connected by multiple points of positioning information of the agricultural machine obtained during travelling of the agricultural machine on the actual operated area; determining a boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row according to the image of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row; determining an actual operating width of the farm implement according to the trajectory of travel of the agricultural machine on the current row and the boundary of the actual operated area of the farm implement on the current row, wherein the actual operating width of the farm implement is different from a size of the farm

Assignees

• Jiangsu Xcmg Construction Machinery Res Institute Ltd
• Xcmg Agricultural Equipment Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zuo Shuai
• Gao Liang
• Chen Ming
• Liu Chenghao

Classifications

• G05D2111/10

  Optical signals · CPC title

• G05D2107/21

  Farming, e.g. fields, pastures or barns · CPC title

• G05D1/24

  Arrangements for determining position or orientation · CPC title

• G05D2105/15

  for harvesting, sowing or mowing in agriculture or forestry · CPC title

• A01B69/001

  Steering by means of optical assistance, e.g. television cameras (steering devices for road marking vehicles E01C23/163) · CPC title