Patent ID: 7593798

Claim:
A method of guiding a vehicle, the method comprising: establishing elevation data and corresponding location data for a work area divided into cells; determining location data, including a particular location of a vehicle, within the work area; estimating at least one of roll data and pitch data corresponding to the particular location, the roll data associated with a corresponding lateral slope, the pitch data associated with a corresponding longitudinal slope generally perpendicular to the lateral slope, wherein each of the roll data and pitch data are separately estimated using i) a maximum slope of ground with respect to a reference point for each cell traversed by the vehicle corresponding to the particular location, and the maximum slope having a non-zero longitudinal slope component and a non-zero lateral slope component, and ii) an aspect angle between a direction of the maximum slope and an axis with which a direction of travel is coincident; guiding the vehicle steering in a direction of travel with compensation data based upon at least one of the estimated roll data and the pitch data such that an actual path of the vehicle follows a target path.