Patent ID: 8190364

Claim:
A method for providing real-time, towed implement compensation, comprising: calculating a vehicle offset heading relative to a targeted vehicle track for a vehicle located at a first vehicle location determined by a first location-determining receiver on the vehicle; calculating an implement offset heading relative to a targeted implement track for an implement located at a first implement location associated with the first vehicle location; determining a modified vehicle offset heading relative to the targeted vehicle track based on the calculated vehicle offset heading and the calculated implement offset heading to minimize the calculated vehicle offset heading, the calculated implement offset heading, and a vehicle lateral error, the vehicle lateral error defining a shortest linear distance between the first vehicle location and the targeted vehicle track; and providing a steering control signal based on the determined modified vehicle offset over a first time period, the modified vehicle offset gradually introduced to a steering controller over a second time period, shorter than the first time period, based on the calculated vehicle offset and a distance traveled by the implement during the second time period, wherein the providing of the steering control signal further comprises gradually decreasing or decaying the modified vehicle offset heading in accordance with the following equation: O N = O P e (−2d/l) where O N is the modified vehicle offset headin O p is the previous vehicle offset or the calculated vehicle offset heading, e is the exponential function, d is the distance traveled by the implement during the second time period, and l is the length of the implement.