Distributed area coverage path planning subject to the inclusion of a headland path

Mogens Plessen

cs.ROOct 11, 2026

Distributed area coverage path planning subject to the inclusion of a headland path

Authors: Mogens Plessen

Organizations: Findklein GmbH, Switzerland

Abstract

A deterministic method for the problem of distributed area coverage path planning subject to the inclusion of a headland path is presented. Given a, in general, non-convex area to be covered that may, in general, include obstacle areas, multiple robots, at least one robot depot, and constraints on each machinery such as a working width, work capacity limits, travel capacity limits, nonholonomic dynamical constraints and, possibly, a robot start and end depot assignment, distributed paths for each machinery are calculated that collectively enable full area coverage. Variations are discussed, in particular, a scenario where unconstrained depots assignment can attain a global optimal solution to the problem. The importance of inclusion of a headland path for area coverage, as well as the benefits in comparison to an alternative Boustrophedon-pattern based approach are highlighted.

Figures & tables

MAIN NOMENCLATURE
Symbols
$L$	Pathlength, (m).
$D$	Depot location, (-).
$N$	Nr. of robots, (-).
$R_{i}$	Turning radius of robot $i$ , (m).
$T$	Transition location, (-).

Table 1

Panel of Figure 2 — Fig. 1 : Visualisation of the Boustrophedon-pattern and and an enclosing headland path.

Fig. 2 : Bird’s eye view: visualization of the terms headland path , mainfield lane and a robot covering an area with a working width. One area coverage application is to spray an area (e.g., for a pesticide application). Other agricultural area coverage applications include mowing, fertilizing, seeding, harvesting and so forth. Top : Real-world visualization. Bottom : Abstract visualization where a robot might travel from location Q towards R or D.

Panel of Figure 4 — Fig. 3 : Illustration of the importance of including a headland path for area coverage applications.

Panel of Figure 5 — Fig. 4 : Illustration of the coordination of two robot paths (in gray and black) for two different cases. Each robot phase consists of (i) a first transition phase (dashed line) that connects the start depot with a path to a location where area coverage begins, (ii) a second phase (solid line) describing area coverage work, and finally (iii) a third phase (dotted line) indicating a path from the last worked location (LWL) to the exit depot. The LWL (location $T_{2}$ ) links the two robot paths.

Fig. 5 : Illustration of a real-world example with an obstacle area.

Panel of Figure 7 — Fig. 6 : Two examples to illustrate the effects of (a) fixed depot locations, and (b) optimal free depot placement.

Panel of Figure 8 — Fig. 7 : Counterexample 1: The repressed-area problematic for Boustrophedon-based path planning. See Sect. 3.4 for a detailed discussion.

Fig. 8 : Counterexample 2: The repressed-area problematic for Boustrophedon-based path planning. It a robot located at $Z(t)$ wishes to reach transition $Z_{0}$ subject to the repressed area constraint, it can do so only via a large detour. See Sect. 3.4 for a detailed discussion.

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Corner Cases: Headland Coverage Path Planning for Autonomous Driving in Arable Farming

Riikka Soitinaho, Timo Oksanen

Technical University of Munich, Germany; Chair of Agrimechatronics; Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI)

Autonomous Driving Coverage Path Planning Precision Agriculture

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This paper presents a new method for headland coverage path planning for arable fields. Several earlier approaches suggest covering the headland with nested polygons and smooth turns, however, covering the field corners entirely requires manoeuvres with reversing. In the new method, the polygon corners are modified to allow a reversing turn. A comparison to two other methods considering gap, overlap, and crossing the field boundary shows an improvement in the coverage result especially in field corners of around 90 degrees, and 240 degrees and above. Applicability of the new method is shown with several examples of real polygonal field maps.

Abstract

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