Crop Spirals: Re-thinking the field layout for future robotic agriculture

Abstract

Conventional linear crop layouts, optimised for tractors, hinder robotic navigation with tight turns, long travel distances, and perceptual aliasing. We propose a robot-centric square spiral layout with a central tramline, enabling simpler motion and more efficient coverage. To exploit this geometry, we develop a navigation stack combining DH-ResNet18 waypoint regression, pixel-to-odometry mapping, A* planning, and model predictive control (MPC). In simulations, the spiral layout yields up to 28% shorter paths and about 25% faster execution for waypoint-based tasks across 500 waypoints than linear layouts, while full-field coverage performance is comparable to an optimised linear U-turn strategy. Multi-robot studies demonstrate efficient coordination on the spirals rule-constrained graph, with a greedy allocator achieving 33-37% lower batch completion times than a Hungarian assignment under our setup. These results highlight the potential of redesigning field geometry to better suit autonomous agriculture.