• ETRI Journal
• /
• v.45 no.3
• /
• pp.479-491
• /
• 2023

The automation of agricultural machines is an irreversible trend considering the demand for improved productivity and lack of labor in handling agricultural tasks. Unstructured working environments and weather often inhibit a seemingly simple task from being fully autonomously performed. In this context, we propose a remote driving system (RDS) to aid agricultural machines designed to operate autonomously. Particularly, we modify a commercial speed sprayer for orchard environments into a robotic speed sprayer to evaluate the proposed RDS's usability and test three sensor configurations in terms of human performance. Furthermore, we propose a confidence error ellipsebased task performance measure to evaluate human performance. In addition, we present field experimental results describing how the sensor configurations affect human performance. We find that a combination of a semiautonomous line tracking device and a wide-angle camera is the most effective for spraying. Finally, we discuss how to improve the proposed RDS in terms of usability and obtain a more accurate measure of human performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
• /
• 1996.06c
• /
• pp.802-811
• /
• 1996

Farmers need alternatives for weed control due to the desire to reduce chemicals used in farming. However, conventional mechanical cultivation cannot selectively remove weeds located in the seedline between crop plants and there are no selective heribicides for some crop/weed situations. Since hand labor is costly , an automated weed control system could be feasible. A robotic weed control system can also reduce or eliminate the need for chemicals. Currently no such system exists for removing weeds located in the seedline between crop plants. The goal of this project is to build a real-time , machine vision weed control system that can detect crop and weed locations. remove weeds and thin crop plants. In order to accomplish this objective , a real-time robotic system was developed to identify and locate outdoor plants using machine vision technology, pattern recognition techniques, knowledge-based decision theory, and robotics. The prototype weed control system is composed f a real-time computer vision system, a uniform illumination device, and a precision chemical application system. The prototype system is mounted on the UC Davis Robotic Cultivator , which finds the center of the seedline of crop plants. Field tests showed that the robotic spraying system correctly targeted simulated weeds (metal coins of 2.54 cm diameter) with an average error of 0.78 cm and the standard deviation of 0.62cm.