Method and system for the autonomous navigation of a farm vehicle in both open field and orchard rows scenarios.
| Patent title | Method and system for the autonomous navigation of a farm vehicle |
|---|---|
| Thematic area | Bioeconomy, Agriculture and Environment |
| Ownership | ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA' DI BOLOGNA, Andrea Sala |
| Inventors | Roberto Tazzari, Lorenzo Marconi, Andrea Sala, Dario Mengoli |
| Protection | Italy |
| Licensing status | Available for development agreements, option, license and other exploitation agreements |
| Keywords | Agricultural UGV, Autonomous Tractor, Modular Robotics Platform, Precision Agriculture |
| Filed on | 07 September 2021 |
Techniques are known for autonomous navigation of large agricultural vehicles operating in open fields and substantially free of obstacles which exploit satellite technology to carry out agricultural operations without the need to be conducted by a driver. In recent years, autonomous navigation methods based on stereoscopic cameras and high precision laser devices (LiDAR) assisted by GPS systems have been proposed, but in the case of complex environments, i.e. not perfectly geometric or flat, they involve very long training times. Furthermore, the satellite signal may be disturbed by the presence of trees and orchard infrastructure, and normally cannot guarantee sufficient precision to navigate in particularly cluttered and narrow environments, typical of orchards.
The autonomous navigation system allows the agricultural vehicle to move autonomously both in open field environments and in restricted environments such as rows. Navigation is allowed through a plurality of markers that are detected by the vehicle. The vehicle is equipped by a system capable of recognizing these markers, which includes an optical sensor and / or LIDAR. The navigation system is designed to self-learn the characteristics of the environment in which it operates and over time makes the markers no longer necessary. The use of optical sensors and LIDAR allows to no more rely to the GPS signal, by recognizing the structure of the environment also after markers removal.
Applications:
- Agriculture
Advantages:
- Self-learning system
- Ease of configuration
- Better precision during navigation
- Flexibility of the platform in terms of sensors