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Grassbot: The fully autonomous tractor

Conact information

University: KU Leuven

Faculty: Bioscience engineering

Department: MeBioS

Adres: Kasteelpark Arenberg 30

B-3001 Heverlee

Belgium

Tel. +32 16 321436

Supervisors:

Prof. Wouter Saeys (wouter.saeys@kuleuven.be)

Dr. Bart Lenaerts (bart.lenaerts@kuleuven.be)

Ing. Soner Akpinar (soner.akpinar@kuleuven.be)

Team members:

Thomas Bangels (thomas.bangels@student.kuleuven.be); (thomasbangels_94@hotmail.com)

Alexander Damen (alexander.damen@student.kuleuven.be); (alexanderdamen40014@gmail.com)

Stijn Leman (stijn.leman@student.kuleuven.be)

Steven Ongenae (steven.ongenae@student.kuleuven.be)

Yvenn Sermeus (yvenn.sermeus@student.kuleuven.be)

Project information

Title: Grassbot

grassbot kasteelpark.jpg

Abstract:

There is an increasing trend in free-range farms and automatisation. The goal of this project was to program a tractor which could design a path that covers the field and avoid static and dynamic objects while driving it. A GPS was used to keep track of the position of the vehicle. On top of the GPS, a kalman filter was implemented. The kalman filter corrects error in the GPS data and can keep track of the position for 3 seconds if the GPS signal is lost. To make sure the vehicle does not collide with cows of trees, a LIDAR sensor is fitted on the front of the vehicle. When an object is detected, a path around it is made using an A-star algorithm. Steering angle was calculated with a PI-controller. The speed can be manually adjusted on the screen.  All this high-level controlling is done in LabVIEW. This software was chosen for its organized lay-out and many predefined algorithms. LabVIEW sends the speed and steering angle as an UDP package to an Arduino, which controls the low-level. It drives a linear actuator for gas control and a hydrostat to regulate the steering. The combination of all systems resulted in a full autonomous vehicle, the grassbot. In the future, we consider to attach all kind of modules to the grassbot. Like for instance a feature to map the grass-quality of the field or detect and eliminate weeds. This way, many field-operations could be done autonomous on the field, which is a great opportunity for every farmer.

Poster:

Grassbot poster.JPG

Movies:

Field tests: https://youtu.be/7jmARY15cOo

Controlling the actuators: https://youtu.be/Yc3qUeBSyVM

Additonal files:

Please check the full report in attachment for further information. The labVIEW VI's and a presentation are attached as well.

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Comments
FilipL
Member
Member
on

Fantastic job !!

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