Yutaka Kikuchi

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.

Autonomous rice field operation project in NARO

We are engaged in research about autonomous rice field operation. We have developed an automated tractor, a rice transplanter and a combine harvester. These automated agricultural machineries are guided by a global positioning system (GPS) and a direction sensor such as inertia measurement unit (IMU) using the controller area network (CAN) bus. Because each machine is used for a limited period of time in a year, we plan to share a main control computer and navigation sensors among automated machineries. We expect to deliver autonomous operation in paddy field at lower cost and to shorten the development period of each machine. The actuator control command and data communication protocols comply with the ISO 11783. In this paper, we report about project outline and explain about a rice transplanter as an example of automated agricultural machinery.

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.