Patent ID: 7689356

Claim:
An iterative method for creating curved swath paths from a baseline swath path for use in an agricultural vehicle guidance system comprising the following steps: providing a vehicle with an associated implement; providing a vehicle guidance system having a vehicle position receiver; providing a swath generation apparatus (SGA) having a processing capability and an SGA memory device, the SGA being communicatively coupled to the guidance system; providing an operator input device; communicating a swath width to the SGA; communicating a baseline swath path to the SGA, the baseline swath path having at least three spaced apart position data points defining a first curvature and a baseline length; and creating by the processing capability of the SGA by an iterative process, at least one adjacent swath path generally parallel to the baseline swath path and spaced apart from the baseline swath path by the swath width, the at least one adjacent swath path having a second curvature slightly differing from the first curvature; extending within the SGA the baseline length by defining a first and a second extension for the baseline swath path, the first extension having at least one position data point positioned in line with the starting point and one immediately adjacent position data point along the baseline swath path, the second extension having at least one position data point positioned in line with the ending point and one immediately adjacent position data point along the baseline swath path; designating within the SGA the end-most position data points of the first and second extensions as the starting point and ending point of the baseline swath path and adjusting the baseline length based thereupon; creating within the SGA the at least one adjacent swath path having a series of spaced apart position data points, each position data point of the adjacent swath path being adjacent to and separated from adjacent position data points of the plurality of position data points on the baseline swath pattern by a swath width, and having a swath path length substantially equal to the adjusted baseline length; and extending within the SGA the swath path length of the at least one adjacent swath path by defining at least one additional position data point for each end, each at least one position data point being positioned in line with the two end most adjacent position data points on the end of the swath path, and repeating the steps for each adjacent swath path created such that the swath path length of each adjacent path is longer than the swath path from which it is created.