A MOBILE AUTONOMOUS AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM AND METHOD

There is provided a mobile autonomous agricultural system (10) comprising: a powered mobile unit (12) for carrying agricultural equipment (22), and configured to move along rows (40) of crops; at least one laser curtain sensor (18) configured to project a laser curtain away from the mobile unit (12); a location module (24) configured to monitor a location of the mobile unit (12) relative to a row (40); a controller (20) configured to control the travel of the mobile unit (12); a safety module (26) configured to: receive a location signal from the location module (24) related to the location of the mobile unit (12) relative to a row (40), select a mode of operation to process the laser curtain in a predefined laser curtain pattern, based on the received location signal, each mode of operation corresponding to a different predefined laser curtain pattern, and to generate a safety output in response to determining that the laser curtain is interrupted within the laser curtain pattern.