AUTONOMOUS MANEUVERS OF A FARM VEHICLE WITH A TRAILED IMPLEMENT IN HEADLAND

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of path generation and motion control for the autonomous maneuvers of a farm vehicle with a trailed implement in headland. A reverse turn planner is firstly investigated, based on primitives connected together. Then, both steering and speed control algorithms are considered. \nWhen the system is driving forward, the control algorithms are based on a kinematic model extended with additional sliding parameters and on model predictive control approaches. When the system is driving backward, two different steering controllers are proposed and compared. Real world experiments have been carried out with an experimental trailer hitched to a mobile robot. At the end of each row, the reverse turn is automatically generated to connect the next reference track, and the maneuvers are autonomously performed. Reported experiments demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed algorithms.