Vehicle controllers for agricultural and industrial applications

This invention describes self-driving farm vehicles that use a special sensor, like a laser scanner, to create a real-time 3D picture of the field. The vehicle's computer analyzes this 3D data to find crop rows or furrows, matches them to a pre-loaded map to pinpoint its exact location, and then steers the vehicle precisely along the rows, including planning turns at the end of each. The claims specifically detail detecting crop rows and planning turns, and can also involve detecting furrows and filtering the sensor data.