Guidance of agricultural vehicles - a historical perspective

This article provides a brief overview of research efforts over the past 50 years directed toward the development of guidance systems for agricultural vehicles. The motivations for and potential advantages of autonomous or semi-autonomous systems are discussed. Examples are presented of the two general approaches taken; namely, guidance with respect to a directrix generated by the previous pass, or guidance with respect to a directrix generated by fixed points in the field. From this review, it is concluded that two recent technologies, specifically computer vision and the global positioning system, possess the technological features and characteristics most closely resembling those possessed by the human operator for implementation of a vehicle guidance system. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.