Patent ID: 8060269

Claim:
A method for generating swath lines for sloping terrain for use in a work vehicle comprising the steps of: providing a work vehicle with an associated swath producing element having a lateral extent; providing a control system operable to guide the vehicle along an elongate swath line in a pattern of generally parallel elongate swath lines; determining position of the vehicle as the vehicle moves along the swath line; determining an actual swath width associated with a current swath line as a function of the lateral extent of the swath producing element, the position of the vehicle and a local slope of the terrain along the immediately preceding swath line; and generating a subsequent swath line next to the current swath line as a function of the determined actual swath width of the current swath line before commencing the subsequent swath line, wherein each current swath line is next to an immediately preceding swath line with no substantial gaps between swath lines due to terrain which is sloped, data input from the current swath line generating each next subsequent swath line as a function of a determined local slope of terrain traversed during the current swath line by the swath producing element such that gaps between the current swath line and the subsequent swath line are substantially eliminated.