AUTO-DETECTION OF A FIELD IN FLEET MANAGEMENT

• US 20110160994A1
• Filed: 12/29/2009
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AGCO Corporation
• Original Assignee: AGCO Corporation
• Inventors: RIEGGER, LORENZ, O'NEIL, CHRISTOPHER BURTON, SCHMIDT, LEE A.
• Application Number:
  US12/648,985
• Publication Number:
  US 20110160994A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture

Abstract

A field boundary may be provided. First, a plurality of location data points may be received. Next, it may be determined whether each of the plurality of location data points is associated with at least one work area. Then a boundary line of the at least one work area may be identified from at least a subset of the plurality of location data points.

Claims

1. A method for providing a field boundary, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of location data points;

determining whether each of the plurality of location data points is associated with at least one work area; and

identifying a boundary line of the at least one work area from at least a subset of the plurality of location data points.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the identified boundary line to a user; and

determining whether the user accepts the identified boundary line.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

in response to determining that the user accepted the identified boundary line, generating an activity report associated with the at least one work area.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the activity report comprises generating the activity report comprising at least one of the following:

a fuel usage report, a crop yield report, a consumable usage report, and a crop quality report.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

in response to determining that the user accepted the identified boundary line, generating at least one wayline within the identified boundary line, wherein the at least one wayline comprises a guidance path for a machine to follow when operating within the at least one work area.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising, in response to determining that the user did not accept the identified boundary line, receiving at least one manual correction to at least a portion of the identified boundary line.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the plurality of location data points comprises receiving the plurality of location data points wherein each of the plurality of location data points comprises a location coordinate and at least one of the following:

a timestamp, an operator identifier, a machine identifier, a crop yield measurement, a fuel level measurement, a consumable supply level measurement, a travel speed, and a work state.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the plurality of location data points comprises receiving the plurality of location data points wherein the plurality of location data points comprise a plurality of locations traversed by an apparatus associated with a Global Positioning System component.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the plurality of location data points comprises receiving the plurality of location data points from a plurality of sources.

10. The method of 1, wherein receiving the plurality of location data points comprises receiving the plurality of location data points from a plurality of sources wherein each of the plurality of sources comprising an apparatus operating within a threshold proximity to each other and within a threshold time period.

11. The method of 1, wherein receiving the plurality of location data points comprises receiving the plurality of location data points from a plurality of sources wherein each of the plurality of sources comprising an apparatus operating within a threshold proximity to each other and within a threshold time period, wherein each of the plurality of sources are performing substantially similar operations.

12. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing a work area boundary, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

receiving a plurality of data points;

analyzing the plurality of data points to identify a tentative boundary of a work area;

displaying the tentative boundary to a user;

determining whether the user accepts the tentative boundary;

in response to determining that the user has accepted the tentative boundary, generating an activity report for the work area associated with the accepted boundary.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein receiving the plurality of location data points comprises receiving the plurality of location data points from a plurality of machines operating over a predetermined time period.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein receiving the plurality of location data points comprises receiving the plurality of location data points from a plurality of machines operating over a predetermined time period wherein each of the plurality of data points comprise a timestamp, a location coordinate, a machine identifier, and a work state of at least one of the plurality of machines associated with the machine identifier.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein analyzing the plurality of data points to identify the tentative boundary of the work area comprises:

categorizing each of the plurality of data points as a worked or unworked data point according to the work state associated with each of the plurality of data points;

determining whether a first subset of the plurality of data points categorized as worked is bordered by a second subset of the plurality of data points categorized as unworked; and

in response to determining that the first subset of the plurality of data points categorized as worked is bordered by the second subset of the plurality of data points categorized as unworked, drawing the tentative boundary around the first subset of the plurality of data points.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein analyzing the plurality of data points to identify the tentative boundary of the work area comprises:

determining whether at least one of the plurality of data points indicates that a provider of the data point was in a travel state; and

in response to determining that at least one of the plurality of data points indicates that the provider of the data point was in the travel state, removing the at least one data point indicating that the provider was in the travel state from the plurality of data points.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein analyzing the plurality of data points to identify the tentative boundary of the work area comprises:

determining whether a first subset of the plurality of data points are associated with a travel state of a provider of the plurality of data points;

in response to determining that the first subset of the plurality of data points are associated with the travel state of the provider of the plurality of data points, determining whether the first subset of the plurality of data points substantially surrounds a second subset of the plurality of data points, wherein the second subset of the plurality of data points are associated with a work state of the provider of the plurality of data points

18. A system for identifying a work area boundary, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to;

receive a plurality of data points, wherein each data point comprises a location and wherein the plurality of data points are received from a plurality of machines,

analyze the plurality of data points to identify at least one work area, and

generate a report associated with the identified at least one work area.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processing unit being operative to analyze the plurality of data points comprises the processing unit being operative to do at least one of the following:

compare the plurality of data points to at least one known topographical feature, group the plurality of data points according to a machine identifier, identify a work state of a machine associated with each of the plurality of data points, and identify a work type performed by the machine associated with each of the plurality of data points.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the processing unit is further operative to update the identified at least one work area according to at least one of the following:

a newly received second plurality of data points and a user correction.