Development of an automatic operation control system for a weeding robot in paddy fields to track a target path and speed

Abstract

The overall purpose of this study is to develop a system by which a boat-type weeding robot equipped with trailing chains can operate automatically along a target path at a target speed. A mathematical model of the weeding robot was constructed and simulations were performed. These simulations, together with experiments involving automatic operation of the weeding robot in a swimming pool and in a paddy field, confirmed that the robot weeder was able to follow the target path at the set speed and with the appropriate posture. The results showed that the use of PID control improved the error from the target path by 71 % and the work time by 10 % compared to the case without PID control.