Autonomous unmanned ground vehicle as sensor carrier for agricultural survey tasks

Abstract

For agricultural surveys, the use of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) as sensor carriers is becoming increasingly attractive. These vehicles can be equipped with multiple sensing de-vices to achieve a high level of autonomy in order to improve productivity and profitability in agriculture. For this application, special requirements for the UGV must be fulfilled. The system presented in this paper is designed to adapt to the plant row spacing in an orchard with a flexible track width of between 0.8 and 1.2 meters. It uses 29-inch wheels to provide a ground clearance of at least 40 centimetres. The payload (sensor platform) is fully separated from the driving unit and will be provided with electric power from the battery. The four wheels are each equipped with electric motors. A hinged axle enables a small turning radius for the transfer from one leg of the survey to the next. First tests with the UGV show stable steering characteristics and sufficient power for up-hill motion. The arrangement of a sensor head with multiple sensors for environmental modelling and navigation, as well as the realisation of a hard real-time control system for the drivetrain and sensors results in this concept study being a very challenging task