Kota Motobayashi

A Robot System for Paddy Field Farming in Japan

Abstract The objective of this research is to realize fully robot-operated farming from tillage to harvest in large-scale agriculture such as cultivation of rice, wheat and soybean in Japan. For this purpose, three types of robot have been developed; the first is robot tractor, the second are rice transplanter robots, the third are combine harvester robots. RTK-GPS and inertia measurement unit (IMU), or GPS compass, are used for navigation system. Robots have Controller Area Network (CAN) bus that all sensors and PC can be connected in common among other robots such as tractors, rice transplanters, and combine harvesters. These robots could be done autonomous operation in paddy field. In addition, moving between the fields for effective operations and safe guideline for robot system were discussed.

A Global Positioning System Guided Automated Rice Transplanter

Abstract We have developed a new Global Positioning System (GPS) guided rice transplanter. We developed GPS and IMU guided rice transplanter in previous researches. Those were guided with GPS position data and inertia measurement unit (IMU) direction data. New one is guided with GPS position data with tilt correction during straight driving and guided with IMU direction data during turning at the headland. The GPS antenna is set to 1.5m height and 0.4m front offset from vehicle front axle. The actuator control command and data communication protocols comply with through the controller area network (CAN) bus. Steering and transmission are controlled by electrical actuators according to the location in a field. We report results of experiment.

Development of Robot Combine Harvester for Beans Using CAN Bus Network

Abstract A robot combine harvester for beans was developed using CAN Bus network. Two sensors are connected to the CAN Bus; a RTK-GPS to locate the position, and a GPS Compass to detect the heading direction. This robot is programmed to perform autonomous operation such as moving forward, backward, and turning in right angle. When the robot was tested in harvesting soybeans on a 100m × 30m rectangular field, the deviations between the target path and the robots traveling path was approximately 0.07m RMS, and the yaw angle error was approximately 1.82° RMS along the long side of the field. Therefore this robot can work autonomously along the target path without overlapping and shortening. In addition, this robot can unload harvested grain to adjacent transport truck during harvesting operation, which improved harvesting capacity to approximately 10%.

Standardized Control and Communication Data Network for a Small Range Agricultural Machinery

Abstract In this paper, development and standardization of on-vehicle control and communication data network for small size farm machinery is described. There already exist an international standard and many compliant products in the western countries. But, they are too huge and complicated for the average Japanese style of farming, which is represented by the words of small tractors and small paddy fields. In order to achieve an advancement and cost reduction in this field, enough and sufficient low cost simple electronic devices and related software were developed. The communication method adopted basically depends on the ISO 11783 standard technology, and some new features needed for the domestic agricultural conditions are considered. At the same time, a new domestic simple standard for data exchange between ECUs on tractors and attached implements are discussed. From some experiments, it became clear that the developed hardware and software together are strong tools to realize the domestic standardized devices. It can be said that standardization of data communication for lower range of farm machinery just has been started.