| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
Higuti, Vitor A. H.
[1]
;
Velasquez, Andres E. B.
[1]
;
Magalhaes, Daniel Varela
[1]
;
Becker, Marcelo
[1]
;
Chowdhary, Girish
[2]
Total Authors: 5
|
| Affiliation: | [1] Univ Sao Paulo, Mech Engn Dept, BR-13566590 Sao Carlos, SP - Brazil
[2] Univ Illinois, CSL, Agr & Biol Engn, Urbana, IL - USA
Total Affiliations: 2
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | Journal of Field Robotics; v. 36, n. 3, p. 547-567, MAY 2019. |
| Web of Science Citations: | 3 |
| Abstract | |
This paper describes a light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based autonomous navigation system for an ultralightweight ground robot in agricultural fields. The system is designed for reliable navigation under cluttered canopies using only a 2D Hokuyo UTM-30LX LiDAR sensor as the single source for perception. Its purpose is to ensure that the robot can navigate through rows of crops without damaging the plants in narrow row-based and high-leaf-cover semistructured crop plantations, such as corn (Zea mays) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). The key contribution of our work is a LiDAR-based navigation algorithm capable of rejecting outlying measurements in the point cloud due to plants in adjacent rows, low-hanging leaf cover or weeds. The algorithm addresses this challenge using a set of heuristics that are designed to filter out outlying measurements in a computationally efficient manner, and linear least squares are applied to estimate within-row distance using the filtered data. Moreover, a crucial step is the estimate validation, which is achieved through a heuristic that grades and validates the fitted row-lines based on current and previous information. The proposed LiDAR-based perception subsystem has been extensively tested in production/breeding corn and sorghum fields. In such variety of highly cluttered real field environments, the robot logged more than 6 km of autonomous run in straight rows. These results demonstrate highly promising advances to LiDAR-based navigation in realistic field environments for small under-canopy robots. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 13/07276-1 - CEPOF - Optics and Photonic Research Center |
| Grantee: | Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Grants - Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers - RIDC |
| FAPESP's process: | 17/00033-7 - LiDAR-based navigation system for ground autonomous mobile robot in corn field |
| Grantee: | Vitor Akihiro Hisano Higuti |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree |