Tracking linear trajectories with the spider®: a synchro-drive grass mower mobile robot

Abstract

The automation of farming processes in the UK has been seen as a solution to their lack of agricultural work force. The UK Food Supply Chain Automation Group is working on the automation of a syncho-drive mobile robot (the Spider®, a grass mower). It is valuable to have new kinematic models and techniques to work with the global navigation satellite systems (GPS). This has led to the development of a state space kinematic model representation for the Spider®, via a codistribution of its kinematic constraints. This in turn, will allow the automation of the mobile robot. Furthermore, for this kinematic model, a trajectory line tracking approach based on a goal reaching method is presented. The method was simulated in MATLAB Simulink and shows asymptotic behavior when the maximum speed of the robot is greater than the trajectory speed. The results suggest that this method can be used for agricultural and horticultural applications based on line tracking and global positioning system technologies.