A Real-Time Measurement Method and System for the Harvesting Area of a Grain Combine Harvester

A real-time system for measuring harvesting area is crucial for cross-regional operation. In response to the current situation where significant errors often occur in measuring the areas of small and irregular fields, we designed a low-cost and high-precision online real-time measurement system for the harvesting area of grain combines. The real-time measurement hardware system for measuring area was designed using an STM32 microcontroller as the core unit. The system was developed using three modes: intelligent measurement, circular measurement, and fusion measurement. Simulation and field experiments were conducted to verify the performance of the system. The experimental results showed that in the field simulation experiment with four differently shaped operating areas, the average accuracy of the intelligent mode reached 93.76%, and the average accuracy of the circular mode reached 95.48%. In the field experiments, the average accuracy of the intelligent mode reached 95.09%, the average accuracy of the circular mode reached 95.74%, and the average accuracy of the fusion measurement mode reached 98.01%. Therefore, the real-time measurement system for the harvesting area of a grain combine harvester designed in this study has high accuracy when measuring the area of small and irregular farmland, hence meeting the requirements of the design objectives.