Modular and scalable automation for field robots

摘要

Abstract This article describes a modular and scalable charging and navigation concept for electrified field robots and other agricultural machines. The concept consists of an underbody charging system on a trailer and a modular navigation box. The underlying conductive charging process is compared to other charging techniques. Charging time in relation to charging current and mean power consumption in field use is displayed. In the navigation box, data of various sensors are combined by means of multi-sensor fusion regarding the precise time of arrival. Time synchronization is achieved by a novel method for compensating the data latency jitter by employing Kalman-based timestamp filtering. Furthermore, navigation functionalities, such as motion planning and mapping, are presented.