AgGrade

Software
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I mean a real-time adjustable setting. Think of it like a knob in the tractor. If the program you made is cutting too deep or the tractor is losing traction because it’s trying to pull too hard during a cut, you can say turn a dial or adjust a setting on the display to infield adjust how much it’s cutting. Without having to go back to the computer, redo the whole cut map, then come back and all that, you can just do a quick update. Because it’s a little bit wetter today and the tractor is slipping more than normal, you’ve got to cut less or take less of a cut per pass so

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124

Hmmm… I see. Can you give me your typical max cut depth and what variation you usually see?

Thanks, Andy

125

I have tweaked my haul paths algorithm and it can now calculate all of the haul routes for a 40 ac field in 20 seconds.

I would really appreciate it if a few other people could help look for any patent that might relate to working out routes for hauling soil in order to level land:

I have tried and cannot find anything, but this would give me extra confidence to publish my code and build AgGrade Designer.

Thanks, Andy

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In OptiSurface if you want to add a road you have to create a sub design area, fiddle to get it the right size, then add break lines and create a batter for the sloping side using a totally confusing diagram in a dialog window, decide it isn’t right, select and delete the numerous auto-generated break lines, try again, blah blah blah, along with dodging the random crashes.

I just tried this with AI on an AGD file that has a design surface:

Add a road along the north edge, 12ft crown, 1.5ft high, 3:1 slope blending into the proposed surface, then rebalance the entire field for 1.2 cut/fill ratio

And… it did it! :grinning_face:

Andy

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127

Here’s hoping you have some good video tutorials on how to use this software. (and setup the hardware) getting to sound like it will take a software engineer to run it. :grin: anyways koodos.

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The end goal is to make it as user-friendly as possible! Yes, I will make video tutorials. Andy

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Andy

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Render of a partially leveled field with haul flow arrows. Andy

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Now with ponding analysis for partially leveled fields. Andy

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Haul planner can calculate where to position a center pivot during leveling so it is out of the way and to minimize movement. Andy

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I can’t find any patents for optimizing haul routes for leveling fields (surprising!) so I will make my algorithm public along with AgGrade Designer once I am happy with it.

Andy

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134

Interestingly the patent that the OptiSurface people DO have (US7870684B2) which covers their unique selling point has expired because they failed to make two scheduled maintenance payments.

That means I could consider making an open source version, but their patent does not give the necessary technical details that I believe is supposed to be in there. So that would be a lot of experimentation.

Andy

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Working on GPS guidance including driving back over the fill to compact it. Andy

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137

Well, I am confused.

I now have complete GPS guidance for an entire field. When I put in numbers for speeds, acceleration, deceleration, turning, etc. which are the OptiSurface defaults and also one farmer with experience has told me are reasonable, I get 200 cubic yards per hour.

But another farmer with a lot of leveling experience tells me that is not possible and I will only get 1000 cubic yards per day in ideal conditions (I don’t know how long a day is for him).

I have optimized and optimized to the point where I was trying out new ideas and they would shave off only minutes for the entire field (!) which led me to believe I had hit a plateau with the optimization.

My total time is 223h hours for the 39ac field. Optisurface says 205h but they don’t produce any details to back that up with any certainty.

My GPS track honors the minimum turning circle for a tractor with tandem pans, and also it makes the equipment line up straight before cutting or filling, so I have tried to make it as accurate as possible.

Andy

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138

I think now it just needs to be tested out and compare to real world work to see how accurate and then you could update it with the real world data

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139

Thanks. Yes, I really need a five acre test area but I won’t have one until the soybeans have been harvested, and then there will be probably too much rain. Gah! Andy

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