Optimal route planning and a turning method for an electric vehicle robot in an irregularly shaped vineyard

Abstract

An electric vehicle (EV) robot for vineyards was developed. Optimal route planning and a dynamic turning path creating method were devised for path skip turning that is proper for an irregularly shaped vineyard. Using the developed route planning method that considers the minimum turning radius of a vehicle, we obtained solutions to minimize travel distance on headlands in all paths from 15 to 50. We tested autonomous driving in a real vineyard using the EV robot that creates turning paths dynamically according to the route plan. As a result, the EV robot could travel 12 paths, approximately 1.6 km, in the vineyard without any collision with vine rows.