Using DGPS and Virtual Reality for Navigation Guidance in Precision Agriculture

Lev Virine and Mohamed Abousalem

Abstract:	Navigation guidance technology is currently used in agriculture, construction, mining and a number of other industries. The techniques used, however, have limited ability to generate navigation paths especially in situations when mapping data is constantly changing, the vehicle is moving at high speed or when navigating along curved paths. Further, some of the existing systems, such as light-bar-based systems, fail to present the generated path to the operator using an effective interface. To address these challenges, Position Inc. has developed a new guidance technology for agricultural applications, which, if extended in scope, would be directly applicable to other en-route driver-assistance applications. Two of the fundamental components of Position Inc.’s new technology are the real-time path generation algorithms and the real-time path and mapping data visualization technique. Position Inc. has filed a patent application for both components of this technology. The generated path is a real-time prediction of the future vehicle trajectory. It is generated through the analysis of the spatial relationships between the mapping data objects and the current vehicle position determined using the on-board DGPS system. The vehicle operator will follow the generated path using a virtual reality path indicator. The path indicator is a three-dimensional full-color perspective view of the area based on the mapping data and the generated path. The view is updated in real time while the vehicle is moving based on the changing vehicle position, the work completed, the work to be completed and the user input. Kalman filtering techniques are used to smooth the current position and heading information and thereby providing realistic animation. The employed mobile mapping data model ensures fast access to mapping data to accelerate the data processing and to increase the refresh rate. Presented in this paper is the concept behind Position Inc.’s new technology. The paper includes a detailed description of the developed path generation and virtual reality display techniques. The paper also contains demonstration examples and positioning results using Position Inc.’s unique agricultural guidance product, Contour™.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 11th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1998) September 15 - 18, 1998 Nashville, TN
Pages:	953 - 960
Cite this article:	Virine, Lev, Abousalem, Mohamed, "Using DGPS and Virtual Reality for Navigation Guidance in Precision Agriculture," Proceedings of the 11th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1998), Nashville, TN, September 1998, pp. 953-960.
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