Logistics planning for agricultural vehicles

At the present time, agricultural operations are mostly carried out with agricultural vehicles. To maximize the economic returns from agricultural production, the operating costs of the vehicles have to be minimized. This paper presents an integer linear programming formulation to improve the utilization of the agricultural vehicles during the crop harvesting process. Crops are harvested by combine harvesters. The harvested product is transferred to a tractor trailer every time the combine harvester´s storage capacity is reached. The proposed planning method specifies optimal routes and interactions for the agricultural vehicles in the field. The planning model is based on the minimum-cost network flow problem and it minimizes non-productivity.