Scheduling and motion planning for autonomous grain carts

In this paper, we address the problem of motion planning for an autonomous grain cart. Contrary to prevailing practices in farming wherein one grain cart is allocated to each combine harvester, we envision a scenario in which one grain cart can serve multiple combine harvesters. This gives rise to challenging problems in scheduling and motion planning for the grain cart. In this work, we initially propose a scheduling scheme for a single grain cart to unload multiple combine harvesters without any interruption in the activity of the combines. The proposed algorithm can accommodate arbitrary number of combines. Based on the scheduling scheme, a planner is used to synthesize a feasible path for the grain cart. Finally, simulation results are presented to validate the feasibility of the proposed technique.