Development of Robot Tractor Based on RTK-GPS and Gyroscope

Abstract

This study developed a field robot for an agricultural operating environment. Thenavigation sensor consisted of an RTK-GPS, a fiber optic gyroscope (FOG), and an inertialmeasurement unit (IMU). A sensor fusion algorithm was used to identify FOG bias andcompensate for location error in real-time, thus providing sufficient navigation information tosupport accurate robot guidance in the field. The guidance system could guide the agriculturalrobot automatically to follow either straight or curve paths including crop rows at a speed of 2.5m/s. This RMS position error of the desired pathway in the field was less than 3 cm. The resultsindicated that the navigation system was capable of guiding an agricultural robot accurately androbustly under normal agricultural operations.