Development of a teleoperation system for agricultural vehicles

A teleoperation system for a hydro-static transmission (HST) drive crawler-type robotic vehicle is described in this paper. The system was developed to satisfy the needs of various farm operations and teleoperation in unknown agricultural fields. The controller has a layered architecture and supports two degrees of cooperation between the operator and robot, direct and supervisory control. The vehicle can travel autonomously by using an RTK-GPS and a fiber-optic gyroscope during supervisory control, and the operator interface also provides a field navigator based on Google Map technology. The vehicle's position and heading direction was capable of 1 Hz update using precise satellite image maps. The results of field tests using direct control showed that it is difficult for the operator to control the movement of the vehicle along the target lines. On the other hand, the vehicle could travel in a straight line with a maximum lateral error of 0.3 m by using supervisory control. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.