Method for detecting agricultural field work performed by a vehicle

1. A method for detecting agricultural field work performed by a vehicle, comprising:

a) carrying a satellite navigation receiver on the vehicle and recording a sequence of position fixes and associated time stamps of the satellite navigation receiver;

b) for a position fix of the sequence: determining a group of position fixes that lie in a predefined local region around the considered position fix;

c) dividing the group into at least two sub-groups, of which position fixes of the first sub-group have a minimum time interval from position fixes of the second sub-group;

d) determining a first trajectory section on the basis of at least two position fixes of the first sub-group and a second trajectory section on the basis of at least two position fixes of the second sub-group;

e) determining an attribute vector for the considered position fix comprising at least an angle between the first and the second trajectory section; and,

f) if the attribute vector satisfies a specified threshold criterion comprising a maximum angle, detecting the position fix as a location of field work.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the considered position fix is part of the first sub-group, the attribute vector comprises a normal distance of the considered position fix from the closest second trajectory section, and the threshold criterion also comprises a maximum distance.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising the classification of the detected field work on the basis of at least the normal distance.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the considered position fix is part of the first sub-group, the attribute vector comprises a speed determined from at least two position fixes and associated timestamps of the first sub-group, and the threshold criterion also comprises a maximum speed.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising the classification of the detected field work on the basis of at least the normal distance and the speed.

6. The method according to claim 1 , comprising:

carrying out steps b) to f) for each position fix of the sequence; and

identifying a number of locally contiguous adjacent position fixes, each detected as the location of field work, as agriculturally worked field.

7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising the calculation of the area of the identified field.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the considered position fix is part of the first sub-group, the attribute vector comprises a normal distance of the considered position fix from the closest second trajectory section, and the threshold criterion also comprises a maximum distance, and further, wherein a working width of the vehicle is averaged from a number of normal distances.

9. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:

dividing the position fixes in the field into chronologically successive runs of alternating direction of travel;

smoothing the position fixes in the field so as to maximise the parallelism of the journeys; and

determining a working width from the mutual distance between at least two journeys.

10. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising:

determining a contour of the field;

increasing the contour of the field by a proportion of the working width; and

calculating the area within the increased contour as the area of the identified field.

11. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising the classification of the field at least on the basis of the determined working width.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein step a) is performed with a mobile terminal and steps b) to f) are performed in a remote server, which obtains the sequence from the terminal via a mobile communication connection.