Automatic Guidance of a Farm Tractor Relying on a Single CP-DGPS

B. Thuilot (1) , C. Cariou (2) , P. Martinet (1) , M. Berducat (2)

1 LASMEA - Laboratoire des sciences et matériaux pour l'électronique et d'automatique
2 CEMAGREF - Centre national du machinisme agricole, du génie rural, des eaux et forêts

Precision agriculture involves very accurate farm vehicle control along recorded paths, which are not necessarily straight lines. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of achieving this task with a CP-DGPS as the unique sensor. The vehicle heading is derived according to a Kalman state reconstructor, and a nonlinear velocity independent control law is designed, relying on chained systems properties. Field experiments, demonstrating the capabilities of our guidance system, are reported and discussed.

Mots clés: mobile robots; nonlinear control systems; Kalman state reconstructor; GPS; agriculture

Domaines: Automatique / Robotique

B. Thuilot, C. Cariou, P. Martinet, M. Berducat. Automatic Guidance of a Farm Tractor Relying on a Single CP-DGPS. Autonomous Robots, 2002, 13 (1), pp.53-71. ⟨10.1023/A:1015678121948⟩. ⟨hal-02466250⟩