Towards Development and Verifications of Advanced Optimal Farm Machinery Route Algorithm

Abstract

Efforts related to minimising the environmental burden caused by agricultural activities are key contemporary drivers in the precision agriculture domain. Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) techniques are being applied against soil compaction creation, using on-line optimization of route planning for soil-sensitive field operations. The research presented in this paper aims at optimizing farm machinery routes to minimize the environmental burden. As such, it further advances existing CTF solutions by its complexity including (1) efficient field divisions, (2) U-turns in headlands, (3) obstacles in a farm machinery route and (4) terrain specifics. The developed algorithm is expressed as UML activity diagrams as well as pseudo-code. Results were visualized in 2D and 3D to demonstrate terrain impact. Verifications were conducted at a fully operational commercial farm (Rostěnice, the Czech Republic) against second-by-second sensor measurements of real farm machinery trajectories. The developed algorithm addresses two main viewpoints: economic (saved route, fuel and time) and environmental (among other, reductions of soil compactness and erosion, an increase of soil infiltration rate).