Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Agricultural
Vehicle Robot
2
Noboru Noguchi
CONTENTS
2.1 Introduction to Agricultural Vehicle Robot.................................................... 15
2.2 Overview of a Robot Farming System ........................................................... 16
2.3 Navigation Sensors ......................................................................................... 17
2.4 Autonomous Navigation Control .................................................................... 17
2.5 Agricultural Robot Vehicles ........................................................................... 20
2.5.1 Wheel-Type Robot Tractor.................................................................. 21
2.5.2 Crawler-Type Robot Tractor................................................................ 23
2.5.3 Rice Transplanting Robot ................................................................... 24
2.5.4 Robot Combine Harvester .................................................................. 26
2.6 Obstacle Sensor............................................................................................... 27
2.7 Robot Management System ............................................................................ 29
2.8 Intelligent Robot Vision.................................................................................. 30
2.8.1 Sensing of Crop Status........................................................................ 30
2.8.2 Principle of Intelligent Robot Vision .................................................. 31
2.8.3 Accuracy of Intelligent Robot Vision ................................................. 33
2.9 Multiple Robots System.................................................................................. 34
2.9.1 Concept of Multiple Robots ................................................................ 34
2.9.2 Multirobot Structure ........................................................................... 35
2.10 Summary ........................................................................................................ 37
References ................................................................................................................ 38
2.1 INTRODUCTION TO AGRICULTURAL VEHICLE ROBOT
Agriculture in developed countries after the Industrial Revolution has tended to favor
increases in energy input through the use of larger tractors and increased chemical
and fertilizer application. Although this agricultural technology has negative soci-
etal and environmental implications, it has supported food for rapidly increasing
human populations. In Western countries, “sustainable agriculture” was developed
to reduce the environmental impact of production agriculture (National Research
Council, 1997). The global agricultural workforce continues to shrink, which means
that each worker is responsible for greater areas of land. Simply continuing the cur-
rent trend toward larger and heavier equipment is not the solution. A new mode of
thought, a new agricultural technology, is required for the future. Intelligent robotic
15
