DIFFERENTIAL FLATNESS-BASED FORMATION FOLLOWING OF A SIMULATED AUTONOMOUS SMALL GRAIN HARVESTING SYSTEM

摘要

Researchers around the world have focused on autonomous agriculture with systems encompassing greenhouse,orchard, field, and other applications. Research has shown the potential and ability of the technology to allow a vehicle orselection of vehicles to follow a specified task. In this study, one aspect of the problem, that of operating a tractor-cartcombination in conjunction with a small-grain combine harvester, was investigated. The tractor-cart combination andcombine harvester application was selected because of the high fatigue and long duration aspects of the problem. Differentialflatness-based formation following was tested in software and robotic simulation. The software simulation was based on anactual field track from a combine yield monitor and demonstrated the potential of the system. The robotic simulation usedtwo iRobot Magellan Pro robots in an indoor environment and demonstrated that the methodology could be implemented inreal time.