The Use of High Precision GPS in Agricultural Field Operations

Tenny Sharpe, Ron Hatch, Fred Nelson

Abstract:	This paper discusses the use of high accuracy GPS techniques to facilitate agricultural field work. A range of applications are described including early field documentation and yield monitoring systems as well as modern automatic steering systems for row crop operations. The GPS techniques that enable these systems are discussed including carrier phase realtime kinematic solutions and wide-area dGPS systems. Innovative designs that exploit the synergies of these techniques are presented. Methods for the dynamic calibration of MEMS inertial sensors to recover platform attitude are also presented. System performance requirements are discussed with an emphasis on automatic steering and the need for accuracy at the one inch level to support the more demanding row crop operations. Results from field trials are shown.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2005) June 27 - 29, 2005 Royal Sonesta Hotel Cambridge, MA
Pages:	11 - 16
Cite this article:	Sharpe, Tenny, Hatch, Ron, Nelson, Fred, "The Use of High Precision GPS in Agricultural Field Operations," Proceedings of the 61st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (2005), Cambridge, MA, June 2005, pp. 11-16.
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