Agricultural Coverage Path Planning Algorithms: A Performance Comparison

By Jasper de Vos

Summary
This report discusses agricultural coverage path planning algorithms based on a literature study of thirteen scientific papers and a comparison of two agricultural coverage path planning algorithms on selected field geometries of different complexity. One of the compared algorithms computes tracks by minimising the weighted costs of swaths and area loss. The other algorithm uses a spatial decomposition and track determination technique based on the minimum number of turns. The comparison was based on six assessment criteria, i.e., number of turns, uncropped area caused by gores, overlap area caused by gores, reliability, feasibility and computation time. The scores of these individual criteria were next combined in a multicriteria analysis, using weights assigned by farmers. The thus computed overall scores were highest for the spatial decomposition method. The criteria, comparison method and fields presented in this thesis can be used in future studies to compare agricultural coverage path planning algorithms in a standardised way.

Keywords: agricultural coverage path planning; coverage path planning; agricultural fields; precision farming; algorithms; multicriteria analysis