Patent ID: 8190337

Claim:
A method for steering an agricultural vehicle including the steps of: receiving global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data including position and velocity information corresponding to at least one of a position, velocity and course of said vehicle; mounting a yaw gyroscope (gyro) on a steerable component of said vehicle; calibrating said yaw gyro with said GNSS data; receiving from said yaw gyro a yaw rate signal corresponding to a yaw rate of said vehicle; computing a compensated heading for said vehicle based on an integration of said yaw rate signal, said compensated heading comprising a blend of said yaw rate signal with heading information based on said GNSS data, wherein said compensated heading is further dynamically calibrated based on said GNSS data; and for each desired swath comprising a plurality of desired positions and desired headings: computing an actual track and a cross track error from said desired swath based on said compensated heading and said position, wherein said position is compared with a selected desired position of said plurality of desired positions and said compensated heading is compared with a selected desired heading of said plurality of desired headings; calculating a desired radius of curvature to arrive at said desired swath with a desired heading; and generating a steering command based on said desired radius of curvature to a steering mechanism, said steering mechanism configured to direct said vehicle.