Estimating operational efficiency of field work based on field shape

In this paper, operational efficiency is defined in terms of how time efficient one field plot is to drive with agricultural machinery, as all turnings at headlands and other non-operational driving are considered to decrease the operational efficiency. The objective of this paper is to study the relationship between operational efficiency and field shapes. The objective is to find a computationally fast method in order to estimate or approximate operational efficiency; fast compared with the complex coverage path planning algorithms. The methodology is divided in to three phases: in the first phase, several shape describing indices are defined for a field plot, and the indices are calculated for a set of real field plots; in the second phase, a complex coverage path planning algorithm (split and merge) is used to calculate accurate solutions for the same set of fields. In the third phase, the correlation between indices and overhead obtained in the second phase is studied and the objective is to develop a model from the index space to the overhead space. Multivariate regression analysis shows correlation between field plot shape indices and operational efficiency, studied with real field plot shapes in southern Finland.