Voice-driven fleet management system for agricultural operations

Food consumption is constantly increasing at global scale. In this light, agricultural production also needs to increase in order to satisfy the relevant demand for agricultural products. However, due to by environmental and biological factors (e.g. soil compaction) the weight and size of the machinery cannot be further physically optimized. Thus, only marginal improvements are possible to increase equipment effectiveness. On the contrary, late technological advances in ICT provide the ground for significant improvements in agri-production efficiency. In this work, the V-Agrifleet tool is presented and demonstrated. V-Agrifleet is developed to provide a “hands-free” interface for information exchange and an “Olympic view” to all coordinated users, giving them the ability for decentralized decision-making. The proposed tool can be used by the end-users (e.g. farmers, contractors, farm associations, agri-products storage and processing facilities, etc.) order to optimize task and time management. The visualized documentation of the fleet performance provides valuable information for the evaluation management level giving the opportunity for improvements in the planning of next operations. Its vendor-independent architecture, voice-driven interaction, context awareness functionalities and operation planning support constitute V-Agrifleet application a highly innovative agricultural machinery operational aiding system

Resource planning for just-in-time make-to-order environments: a scalable methodology using tabu search

This paper develops a two-phase tabu search-based methodology for detailed resource planning in make-to-order production systems with multiple resources, unique routings, and varying job due dates. In the first phase rather than attempting to construct a good feasible plan from scratch, we define a novel approach to resource planning that computes an infeasible but optimal plan, uses it as the initial resource plan, and then makes the necessary modifications to the times of individual tasks to create a feasible finite-capacity plan. In the second phase we search for alternate finite-capacity plans that have decreased earliness, tardiness and lead time. To reduce earliness as well as tardiness, just-in-time philosophical elements are weaved into the construction of the initial solution, the neighborhood structure and the selection criteria. Computational experiments reveal that the tabu search-based methodology is more effective and reliable for resource planning than an exact approach using binary integer linear programming, which struggles to find a good solution in a reasonable amount of time even for trivially small instances. It also outperforms heuristic methods commonly used in practice for resource planning that sort jobs according to priority and load them onto resources one at a time.Ye

Implementation and applications of harvest fleet route planning

In order to support the growing global population, it is necessary to increase food production efficiency and at the same time reduce its negative environmental impacts. This can be achieved by integrating diverse strategies from different scientific disciplines. As agriculture is becoming more data-driven by the use of technologies such as the Internet of Things, the efficiency in agricultural operations can be optimised in a sustainable manner. Some field operations, such as harvesting, are more complex and have higher potential for improvement than others, as they involve multiple and diverse vehicles with capacity constraints that require coordination. This can be achieved by optimised route planning, which is a combinatorial optimisation problem. Several studies have proposed different approaches to solve the problem. However, these studies have mainly a theoretical computer science perspective and lack the system perspective that covers the practical implementation and applications of optimised route planning in all field operations, being harvesting an important example to focus on. This requires an interdisciplinary approach, which is the aim of this Ph.D. project.The research of this Ph.D. study examined how Internet of Things technologies are applied in arable farming in general, and in particular in optimised route planning. The technology perspective of the reviewing process provided the necessary knowledge to address the physical implementation of a harvest fleet route planning tool that aims to minimise the total harvest time. From the environmental point of view, the risk of soil compaction resulting from vehicle traffic during harvest operations was assessed by comparing recorded vehicle data with the optimised solution of the harvest fleet route planning system. The results showed a reduction in traffic, which demonstrates that these optimisation tools can be part of the soil compaction mitigation strategy of a farm. And from the economic perspective, the optimised route planner of an autonomous field robot was employed to evaluate the economic consequences of altering the route in selective harvesting. The results presented different scenarios where selective harvest was not economically profitable. The results also identified some cases where selective harvest has the potential to become profitable depending on grain price differences and operational costs. In conclusion, these different perspectives to harvest fleet route planning showed the necessity of assessing future implementation and potential applications through interdisciplinarity

Quantification of uncertainty of geometallurgical variables for mine planning optimisation

Interest in geometallurgy has increased significantly over the past 15 years or so because of the benefits it brings to mine planning and operation. Its use and integration into design, planning and operation is becoming increasingly critical especially in the context of declining ore grades and increasing mining and processing costs. This thesis, comprising four papers, offers methodologies and methods to quantify geometallurgical uncertainty and enrich the block model with geometallurgical variables, which contribute to improved optimisation of mining operations. This enhanced block model is termed a geometallurgical block model. Bootstrapped non-linear regression models by projection pursuit were built to predict grindability indices and recovery, and quantify model uncertainty. These models are useful for populating the geometallurgical block model with response attributes. New multi-objective optimisation formulations for block caving mining were formulated and solved by a meta-heuristics solver focussing on maximising the project revenue and, at the same time, minimising several risk measures. A novel clustering method, which is able to use both continuous and categorical attributes and incorporate expert knowledge, was also developed for geometallurgical domaining which characterises the deposit according to its metallurgical response. The concept of geometallurgical dilution was formulated and used for optimising production scheduling in an open-pit case study.Thesis (Ph.D.) (Research by Publication) -- University of Adelaide, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, 201

Effects of distribution planning systems on the cost of delivery in unique make-to-order manufacturing

This thesis investigates the effects of simulation through the use of a distribution planning system (DPS) on distribution costs in the setting of unique make-to-order manufacturers (UMTO). In doing so, the German kitchen furniture industry (GKFI) serves as an example and supplier of primary data. On the basis of a detailed market analysis this thesis will demonstrate that this industry, which mostly works with its own vehicles for transport, is in urgent need of innovative logistics strategies. Within the scope of an investigation into the current practical and theoretical use of DPS, it will become apparent that most known DPS are based on the application of given or set delivery tour constraints. Those constraints are often not questioned in practice and in theory nor even attempted to be omitted, but are accepted in day-to-day operation. This paper applies a different approach. In the context of this research, a practically applied DPS is used supportively for the removal of time window constraints (TWC) in UMTO delivery. The same DPS is used in ceteris paribus condition for the re-routing of deliveries and hereby supports the findings regarding the costliness of TWC. From this experiment emerges an overall cost saving of 50.9% and a 43.5% reduction of kilometres travelled. The applied experimental research methodology and the significance of the resulting savings deliver the opportunity to analyse the removal of delivery time window restrictions as one of many constraints in distribution logistics. The economic results of this thesis may become the basis of discussion for further research based on the applied methodology. From a practical point of view, the contributions to new knowledge are the cost savings versus the change of demand for the setting of TWC between the receiver of goods and the UMTO supplier. On the side of theoretical knowledge, this thesis contributes to filling the gap on the production – distribution problem from a UMTO perspective. Further contributions to knowledge are delivered through the experimental methodology with the application of a DPS for research in logistics simulation

Multi-robot mission optimisation : an online approach for optimised, long range inspection and sampling missions

Mission execution optimisation is an essential aspect for the real world deployment of robotic systems. Execution optimisation can affect the outcome of a mission by allowing longer missions to be executed or by minimising the execution time of a mission. This work proposes methods for optimising inspection and sensing missions undertaken by a team of robots operating under communication and budget constraints. Regarding the inspection missions, it proposes the use of an information sharing architecture that is tolerant of communication errors combined with multirobot task allocation approaches that are inspired by the optimisation literature. Regarding the optimisation of sensing missions under budget constraints novel heuristic approaches are proposed that allow optimisation to be performed online. These methods are then combined to allow the online optimisation of long-range sensing missions performed by a team of robots communicating through a noisy channel and having budget constraints. All the proposed approaches have been evaluated using simulations and real-world robots. The gathered results are discussed in detail and show the benefits and the constraints of the proposed approaches, along with suggestions for further future directions