Computational simulation of an agricultural robotic rover for weed control and fallen fruit collection : algorithms for image detection and recognition and systems control, regulation and command

article

Ribeiro, João P.L.
Gaspar, Pedro D.
Soares, Vasco N.G.J.
Caldeira, João M.L.P.

MDPI

RIBEIRO, João P.L. [et al.] (2022) - Computational simulation of an agricultural robotic rover for weed control and fallen fruit collection : algorithms for image detection and recognition and systems control, regulation and command. Electronics. DOI 10.3390/electronics11050790

10.3390/electronics11050790

Computational simulation of an agricultural robotic rover for weed control and fallen fruit collection : algorithms for image detection and recognition and systems control, regulation and command

agriculture
robotics
robotic simulators
robotic rover
controlled spraying
weed control
fruit collection

FCT—MCTES via project UIDB/00151/2020 (C-MAST)
FCT/MCTES through national funds and, when applicable, co-funded EU funds under project UIDB/50008/2020

2022-03-08T10:52:56Z
2022-03-08T10:52:56Z
2022

The continuous rise in the world’s population has increased the need for food, resulting in a rise of agricultural holdings to ensure the supply of these goods directly to the populations and indirectly to all processing industries in the food business. This situation has led agriculture to reinvent itself and introduce new technics and tools to ensure tighter control of the crops and increase yields in food production. However, the lack of labor coupled with the evolution of weeds resistant to herbicides created a crisis in agricultural food production. However, with the growing evolution in electronics, automation, and robotics, new paths are emerging to solve these problems. A robotic rover was designed to optimize the tasks of weed control and collection of fallen fruits of an orchard. In weed control, a localized spraying system is proposed, therefore reducing the amount of applied herbicides. With fruit collection, it is possible to direct fallen fruits for animal feeding and possible to reduce microbial activity on the next campaign crops, therefore avoiding damage. This study proposes the simulation of this robotic rover on robotic simulation software. It also proposes the replication of a similar environment of an orchard to generate an algorithm that controls the rover on the tasks of localized spraying and fallen fruit collection. Creating and testing these algorithms by using a robotic simulator speed up and ease the evaluation of different scenarios and hypotheses, with the added benefit of being able to test two tasks simultaneously. This method also allows greater freedom and creativity because there are no concerns about hardware damage. It should also be noted that development costs are very low.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

openAccess

eng