Method for directing an unloading apparatus of a harvesting machine to a container

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for directing a movable unloading apparatus () of an agricultural harvesting machine to a container () driven adjacent the harvesting machine, the container comprising—as seen from the harvesting machine—near and remote upper borders (). An image of the container is taken by a 3-D camera, in the form of an array of pixels, wherein the camera also generates for each pixel a value of the distance between the camera and the object in the image. The image is analyzed by selecting a number of vertical strips () in the image, determining the filtered distance values for each vertical position along the strips, and determining from these distance values the positions of the near and remote upper borders (). On the basis of these data, the unloading apparatus () is moved towards a predetermined position relative to the container, said predetermined relative position being a position wherein the unloading apparatus directs the harvested crop () to a position above said near upper border () and/or below said remote upper border (), respectively.