Robotic Tankette for Intelligent Bioenergy Agriculture: Design, Development and Field Tests
Marco F. S. Xaud1; Antonio C. Leite2; Evelyn S. Barbosa3; Henrique D. Faria3; Gabriel S. M. Loureiro3; Pål J. From1
1 Norwegian University of Life Sciences; 2 Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro; 3 Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Baixar PDF doi:10.20906/CPS/CBA2018-1357
Resumo
In recent years, the use of robots inagriculture has been increasing mainly due to the high demand of productivity, precision and efficiency, which follow theclimate change effects and world population growth. Unlike conventional agriculture, sugarcane farms are usually regions with dense vegetation, gigantic areas, and subjected to extreme weather conditions, such as intense heat, moisture and rain. TIBA - Tankette for Intelligent BioEnergy Agriculture -is the first result of an R&D project which strives todevelop an autonomous mobile robotic system for carrying outa number of agricultural tasks in sugarcane fields. The proposed concept consists of a semi-autonomous, low-cost, dust and waterproof tankette-type vehicle, capable of infiltrating dense vegetation in plantation tunnels and carry several sensing systems, in orderto perform mapping of hard-to-access areas and collecting samples. This paper presents an overview of the robot mechanical design, the embedded electronics and software architecture, and the construction of afirst prototype. Preliminary results obtained in field tests validatethe proposed conceptual design and bring about several challenges and potential applications for robot autonomous navigation, as well as to build a new prototype withadditional functionality.
Palavras-chave: Mobile robots; Agricultural robotics; Embedded electronics; Sensors Integration