A technique to evaluate field traffic patterns of sugarcane harvester using Autopilot System

In recent years, Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) has been adopted as a high precision alternative to do sugarcane harvesting. This tool automates the movement of the vehicle by controlling the steering of wheels. Currently, validations that demonstrate the benefits of the use of CTF in crops are unknown. Therefore, this research presents a methodological proposal to validate the performance of CTF using GNSS-RTK signal. This test was deployed during an operation period of twelve hours. The outcomes show a decrease in the harvester guiding error. In this way, the study validated the improvement in performance with the use of the CTF with GNSS-RTK signal in sugarcane harvesting works in the geographical valley of Cauca River. Due to the evident advantages using this methodology, it is suggested to replicate the study presented in different conditions of sugarcane crops, in order to characterize the behavior of harvest using guide lines.