Agricultural system

1. A system comprising:

an unmanned aerial vehicle configured to acquire, from a first altitude:

overview field-data representative of a field having crop material that is to be picked up from the field; and

associated overview-location-data; and

a controller configured to:

determine, based on the overview-field-data and the overview-location-data, vehicle-route-data that is representative of a secondary-route to be followed by the unmanned aerial vehicle to acquire secondary information about the crop material that is to be picked up from the field; and

determine vehicle-control-instructions for the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the vehicle-route-data, wherein the vehicle-control-instructions comprise vehicle-steering-instructions for automatically controlling the direction of travel of the unmanned aerial vehicle, such that the unmanned aerial vehicle follows the secondary-route;

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured to:

process the vehicle-control-instructions such that it follows the secondary-route; and

while following the secondary-route, acquire secondary-field-data representative of the crop material that is to be picked up from the field, from a second altitude, wherein the second altitude is lower than the first altitude; and

wherein the controller is further configured to determine control-instructions for a machine to pick up the crop material, based on the secondary-field-data,

wherein the control-instructions comprise machine-steering-instructions for automatically controlling the direction of travel of the machine, such that the machine follows a specific route through the field.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine material-map-data that is representative of the location of rows of the crop material that are to be picked up from the field, based on the field-data; and

determine the control-instructions for the machine to pick up the crop material, based on the material-map-data.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine machine-route-data, representative of the specific route to be taken by the machine, based on the material-map-data; and

determine the control-instructions for the machine based on the machine-route-data.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control-instructions further comprise route-speed-instructions for automatically controlling the speed of the machine at locations along the specific route.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the vehicle is also configured to acquire field-location-data associated with the field-data; and

the controller is further configured to determine the control-instructions based on the field-data and the field-location-data.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine crop-property-data that is representative of the crop material in the field, based on the field-data; and

determine the control-instructions for the machine to pick up the crop material, based on the crop-property-data.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the crop-property-data is representative of one or more of:

material-size-data;

crop-type;

temperature of material;

humidity of material;

length of stalks in the material;

material density; and

stub height.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine field-property-data that is representative of a property of the field, based on the field-data; and

determine the control-instructions also based on the field-property-data.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the field-property-data comprises field-contour-data or field-wetness-data.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein:

the controller is further configured to determine the vehicle-control-instructions for the unmanned aerial vehicle such that it includes stub-height-measurement-locations;

the unmanned aerial vehicle is further configured to land at the stub-height-measurement-locations and acquire stub-height-information; and

the controller is further configured to determine the control-instructions for the machine to pick up the crop material, also based on the stub-height-information.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle comprises an unmanned land vehicle.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system further comprises a machine that is configured to be operated in accordance with the control-instructions.

13. A method of controlling an agricultural machine, the method comprising:

acquiring, from a first altitude by an unmanned aerial vehicle:

overview-field-data representative of a field having crop material that is to be picked up from the field; and

associated overview-location-data;

determining, based on the overview-field-data and the overview-location-data, vehicle-route-data that is representative of a secondary-route to be followed by the unmanned aerial vehicle to acquire secondary information about the crop material that is to be picked up from the field;

determining vehicle-control-instructions for the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the vehicle-route-data, wherein the vehicle-control-instructions comprise vehicle-steering-instructions for automatically controlling the direction of travel of the unmanned aerial vehicle, such that the unmanned aerial vehicle follows the secondary-route;

processing the vehicle-control-instructions by the unmanned aerial vehicle such that it follows the secondary-route, and whilst following the secondary-route, acquiring secondary-field-data representative of the crop material that is to be picked up from the field, from a second altitude, wherein the second altitude is lower than the first altitude; and

determining control-instructions for the agricultural machine to pick up the crop material, based on the secondary-field-data, wherein the control-instructions comprise machine-steering-instructions for automatically controlling the direction of travel of the agricultural machine, such that the agricultural machine follows a specific route through the field.