Automatic following control for agricultural vehicle

The automatic following control system is presented. In order to save time and labor in farming, this control system allows one operator to utilize more than one machine simultaneously. In this system a computer controlled vehicle chases the operator-controlled vehicle. Ultrasonic sensors are used to measure the relative position between vehicles. The sensors were installed on two head-feeding combines. Furthermore, each combine mounted an RTK-GPS in order to measure the travelling locus of the combine precisely. Chase experiments by two combines were performed on the road and the field. Consequently, the presented system successfully demonstrated high accuracy regardless of offset.