Raven Industries, Inc.
Safety system for autonomous operation of off-road and agricultural vehicles using machine learning for detection and identification of obstacles

Abstract:

A framework for safely operating autonomous machinery, such as vehicles and other heavy equipment, in an in-field or off-road environment, includes detecting, identifying, classifying and tracking objects and/or terrain characteristics from on-board sensors that capture images in front and around the autonomous machinery as it performs agricultural or other activities. The framework generates commands for navigational control of the autonomous machinery in response to perceived objects and terrain impacting safe operation. The framework processes image data and range data in multiple fields of view around the autonomous equipment to discern objects and terrain, and applies artificial intelligence techniques in one or more neural networks to accurately interpret this data for enabling such safe operation.