A working machine includes a vehicle body to which a working device is connectable, a driving estimator to estimate whether the vehicle body is drivable along a road based on a road condition and a device condition, a controller to control a driving operation of the vehicle body based on an estimation result obtained by the driving estimator, and a communicator to transmit to an external device driving information regarding driving the vehicle body under control of the controller. The controller is configured or programmed to drive the vehicle body based on a command received from the external device after transmission of the driving information from the communicator to the external device.

A system and method for automatic row alignment driving by a harvester when harvesting above-ground crops includes an elastic row sensing module, a processing module, a controlling module, and a steering module. The elastic row sensing module is disposed on a front grain thresher/grain isolator of the harvester, collecting data as to physical contact with the crop. The elastic row sensing module includes a deformable elastomer in contact with the high stem crop, the sensor detects and reports deformation of the elastomer. The processing module determines current alignment state of the harvester and the controlling module determines any corrective steering signal for the harvester. The steering module controls steering direction.

An invention comprises a setting unit configured to set a travel route of each of a master work machine and a slave work machine on map information, a control unit configured to conduct travel control for the master work machine, while outputting a travel instruction to the slave work machine, and configured to conduct the work in cooperation with the slave work machine, and a specifying unit configured to specify an actual position of the slave work machine, wherein the control unit corrects the travel instruction, based on a difference between a position of the slave work machine on the map information on the travel route that has been set by the setting unit and the actual position of the slave work machine that has been specified by the specifying unit.

A crop monitoring system may include an observation robot, a centralized server, and a user device. An observation robot may be autonomous. The observation robot may include a suite of sensors. The observation robot may include two cameras oriented towards opposite sides of the observation robot to capture images of plants on either side of the observation robot. The centralized server may store and/or execute various instructions for operating and/or communicating with the observation robot. The centralized server may store and/or execute various instructions for processing data such as images, sensor measurements, and environmental data obtained from the observation robot. The centralized server may store and/or execute various instructions for analyzing such data. The centralized server may store and/or execute various instructions for presenting the data to a user, such as via the user device.

Apparatus, systems and methods for the application of water, fertilizers and herbicides to municipal plants, crop plants, indoor plants, nursery plants and the like. A self-powered mobile apparatus delivers a liquid agent. The apparatus has a reservoir for the agent and a dispenser, electronic plant identifier or geographic locator, and an electronic controller to control delivery of the agent based on an output of the electronic plant identifier or geographic locator, or an output of a remote electronic plant identifier or geographic locator.

In one aspect, a system for controlling the direction of travel of agricultural implements may include a work vehicle having a vehicle-based controller configured to control an operation of a valve provided in operative association with the work vehicle. The system may also include an agricultural implement configured to be towed by the work vehicle. The implement may include a sensor configured to detect an operational parameter indicative of a direction of travel of the implement. The implement may also include an actuator configured to adjust the direction of travel of the implement, with the actuator being fluidly coupled to the valve such that the valve is configured to control an operation of the actuator. The implement may further include an implement-based controller configured to initiate control of the operation of the valve based on sensor data received from the sensor to adjust the direction of travel of the implement.

Autonomous driving method in the agricultural field by means of an thermal camera comprising the procedure of obtaining an interpolating function of at least two pixels, of alignments of plants or swaths of a thermal image that appears in front of an agricultural vehicle, acquired through at least one thermal camera, said at least two pixels being corresponding to at least two homologous peaks identified in as many at least two vectors built on values of temperature intensity of corresponding consecutive pixels belonging to as many straight and horizontal lines of pixels extracted from the thermal image and a procedure for calculating an angular phase shift and/or a lateral deviation of the interpolating function with respect to a vertical axis of the thermal image.

Techniques and examples for servicing a horticultural operation are described. A method may involve autonomously identifying the horticultural operation or a target located within the horticultural operation and an action to be performed with respect to the horticultural operation or target. The operation or target comprises at least one plant or a group of plants. Based on the identifying, a local area of the horticultural field is determined. The target is located within the local area. The target is associated to at least one autonomous vehicle. The target is located within the local area by the at least one autonomous vehicle. The action with respect to the target is performed by the at least one autonomous vehicle.

In accordance with an example embodiment, a vehicle path planning system and a method for planning a path of a vehicle having a work tool are provided. The method includes determining an actual path through a work area, modifying the actual path with a margin to determine a modified path plan through the work area, and passing the work tool through the work area with the vehicle along the modified path plan.

A self-propelled work vehicle is provided with systems and methods for communicating the presence of nearby objects to an operator. A horizontally rotatable machine frame supports a work implement which is further vertically rotatable. Various object sensors are each configured to generate object signals representative of detected objects in respective fields of vision. A controller determines a working area for the work vehicle, corresponding at least to a swing radius of the machine frame and optionally further to a swing radius of the work implement at a given orientation and/or angle of rotation. The controller determines positions of each detected object relative to the machine frame based on the object signals and known positions of the respective object sensors, and generates output signals based on the determined object positions with respect to the working area. The output signals may facilitate vehicle interventions, and/or visual alerts corresponding to bird's eye displays.