A planning system (201) for scheduling the operation of autonomous entities within a defined geographical region. The planning system operates at a region plan level (301) for strategic planning across the geographical region, at an operation plan level (302) for operations to be performed by autonomous entities in localised zones having operation-defined geographical boundaries, and at a task plan level (303) in which processing is undertaken in respect of specific tasks to be performed by the autonomous entities, in undertaking the operations.