Introducing Metrics to Analyse the Performance of Automatic Section Control for Agricultural Machines

In this paper, three metrics are proposed and explored for the purpose of analysing and quantifying the performance of any system that uses an ISO 11783 task controller (TC) to automatically control the on/off state of its sections based on GNSS positioning. The issues that can affect TC performance are presented, and equations are shown to calculate the areas of product overlap and gaps. A theoretical example TC is presented and analysed against the proposed metrics to demonstrate the value of the metrics in detailing the performance of a TC in the real case. The causes of errors in real-world situations are discussed and their impacts on the metrics are considered.