Converting to UTM and doing simple trig. calculations would be **vastly** easier for me. I don't live near the equator or a pole but I'm still concerned about errors across a 1.5 mile field. I especially want to be accurate enough to work in the same field with machinery running standard (Deere and Precision) equipment.
Here are the disadvantages of UTM that caught my attention: (from [Wikipedia](
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_position_representation#UTM))
1. Inherent distortion (due to the map projection) gives only approximate answers for most calculations
2. Calculations get complex when crossing the zones
I am fortunate to live smack in the middle of UTM Zone 16. Perhaps the distortion I will see is negligible. I would prefer to write code that anyone can use anywhere but I'm tempted to punt if this will satisfy my needs.
farmerbriantee, it is great to see your code. I appreciate that you shared it. There are Python libraries for the UTM conversions but I have been meaning to look for the trailer calculations after I get the basics handled. (It would be nice to know where my towed 31-row bean planter is.) I realize that you are not using ROS (and I barely do). I will probably mirror your approach for now but I'm hoping for some help with using ROS transformations to do this work. If UTM is sufficient, then I should be alright do use the transforms that way.
As the weather gets nicer here, I get more anxious about writing some usable code. It's a huge relief to get such great help here. Thanks, all.
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