Systems and methods for controlling agricultural harvesting header height

Abstract

A system that provides proactive control of header height, or an associated fluid pressure for a fluid used in positioning of the height of the header. The system can to maintain a generally constant header height as an agricultural vehicle performs an operation along a field. The system can use a model of either or both mechanical or hydraulic systems of the header. The model can receive information from a terrain map, as well as information that is outputted from header sensors. A predicted output generated by the model can be compared to desired header height settings to derive an error computation. An optimizer can use the error computation, a cost function, and constraints to derive a predicted input. The predicted input can both be communicated to the model as a feedback signal and include one or more control signals for an operation of one or more actuators of the header.