Design of a Remote-Controlled and GPS-Guided Autonomous Robot for Precision Farming

Abstract

Determining variations in fields is important for precision farming applications. Precision farming is used to determine, analyse, and manage factors such as temporal and spatial variability to obtain maximum profit, sustainability, and environmental protection. However, precision farming is excessively dependent on soil and plant test processes. Furthermore, test processes are time-consuming, laborious and expensive. These processes also cannot be performed quickly by humans. For these reasons, autonomous robots should be designed and developed for the detection of field variations and variable-rate applications. In this study, a remote-controlled and GPS-guided autonomous robot was designed and developed, which can be controlled via the 3G internet and is suitable for image-processing applications. The joystick is used to manually remotely control the robot movements in any direction or speed. Real-time video transmission to the remote computer can be accomplished with a camera placed on the vehicle. Navigation software was developed for steering the robot autonomously. In the results of the field test for the navigation software, it was found that the linear target point precision ranged from 10 to 12 cm and the distributed target point precision ranged from 15 to 17 cm.