Structure of the on-board assistance system
The on-board assistance system is where all the work of the various subprojects of SoilAssist comes together.
The on-board assistance system is developed by all SoilAssist scientists. The results of all subprojects are combined to provide farmers and contractors with a tool that provides driving and working strategies for agricultural machinery as an assistance function during field work.
A defined user interface (GUI) was implemented so that the on-board assistance system can be used in real field operations. Android tablets were chosen to visualize and operate the GUI on the participating agricultural machines. A central backend server is responsible for the entire planning of the optimal routes and integration of sensor information, which can also monitor possible deviations from the planning during real operation. In this way, no computationally intensive calculations on the tablets are necessary.
The on-board assistance system attached to the agricultural machine in the drivers cabin has a GUI that is divided into four views:
- An initial input view for the configuration of the system including the specification of the process parameters such as the width of the headland, the expected harvest, the driving strategy of the chopper, and the selection of the machines.
- A general overview informs the driver about the current status of the entire fleet. The positions and planned routes of all machines are plotted on a common map.
- Similar to the general overview, a local view exists only for the current machine. There the map is centered on the GPS position of the machine and serves as a navigation tool. In addition, further machine parameters and sensor data are displayed.
- A fourth view informs the driver about the pressure currently measured in the tires, their flattening and the temperature.
