Kerien Fitzpatrick

The Demeter System for Automated Harvesting

Automation of agricultural harvesting equipment in the near term appears both economically viable and technically feasible. This paper describes the Demeter system for automated harvesting. Demeter is a computer-controlled speedrowing machine, equipped with a pair of video cameras and a global positioning sensor for navigation. Demeter is capable of planning harvesting operations for an entire field, and then executing its plan by cutting crop rows, turning to cut successive rows, repositioning itself in the field, and detecting unexpected obstacles. In August of 1997, the Demeter system autonomously harvested 40 hectares (100 acres) of crop in a continuous run (excluding stops for refueling). During 1998, the Demeter system harvested in excess of 48.5 hectares (120 acres) of crop, cutting in a variety of fields.

Position estimator for underground mine equipment

A 2-D perception system that exploits the accuracy and resolution of a laser range sensor to determine the position and orientation of a mobile robot in a mine environment is described. The perception system detects features from range sensor data and matches the features to a map of the mine to compute the sensor position. The features used are line segments and corners, which represent the typical geometry of the mine walls and intersections found in room-and-pillar-type mining. The position estimate is refined by minimizing the error between the map and sensed features. This position information can be used for autonomous navigation when a map of the mine is available or to survey the mine in order to build such a map. The technique is applied to robot navigation in a mine mockup. A refinement of this system could guide machines to yield productive, safe mining operations. >

Robot windrower is first unmanned harvester

Explains that the first robotics commercialization project of the National Robotics Engineering Consortium (USA) is Demeter, the first unmanned, fully automated windrower. Describes how lunar rover and terrestrial military vehicle technology is combined to define two core technologies for mobile agricultural equipment ‐ FieldNav, the digital machine; and FieldHand, the digital operator. Outlines the hardware and software used; standard and custom components used for safety and customized electronics; modifications for drive‐by‐wire; the event‐driven, behaviour‐based architecture (SAUSAGES); sensing for crop line tracking; other detectors, trackers and GPS used for guidance. Finally, explains the benefits of such automation to agriculture and what the future holds for commercialization of Demeter.