: Path planning is an essential part for traveling and mowing of autonomous lawn mower tractors. Objectives of the paper were to analyze operation patterns by a skilled farmer, to extract and optimize waypoints, and to demonstrate generation of formatted planned path for autonomous lawn mower tractors. A 27-HP mower tractor was operated by a skilled farmer on grass fields. To measure tractor travel and operation characteristics, an RTK-GPS antenna with a 6-cm RMS error, an inertia motion sensing unit, a gyro compass, a wheel angle sensor, and a mower on/off sensor were mounted on the mower tractor, and all the data were collected at a 10-Hz rate. All the sensor data were transferred through a software program to show the status immediately on the notebook. Planned path was generated using the program parameter settings, mileage and time calculations, and the travel path was plotted using developed software. Based on the human operation patterns, path planning algorithm was suggested for autonomous mower tractor. Finally path generation was demonstrated in a formatted file and graphic display. After optimizing the path planning, a decrease in distance about 13% and saving of the working time about 30% was achieved. Field test data showed some overlap, especially in the turning areas. Results of the study would be useful to implement an autonomous mower tractor, but further research needs to improve the performance.
Purpose: A system to measure the visibility of agricultural tractor operators was designed and evaluated according to ISO standards, and a blind area diagram around the tested tractor was created based on the manual method recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Methods: A visibility measurement system was designed and evaluated based on the ISO 5006 and ISO 5721-1 standards. Two bulbs used to simulate the operator's eyes were mounted on a bar with a supporting frame. A wooden frame was used to determine the seat index point position. The 12-m visibility test circle was divided into six sectors of vision, and the test tractor was placed at the center of the circle. Artificial light was supplied in the darkened environment, and shadow or masking effects were measured manually around the 12-m circle. Results: When the bulbs were placed at the operator's eye level, front visibility was good; no masking was found in the "A" vision sector, but larger masking widths were found in the "B" and "C" vision sectors. Since the masking width exceeded 700 mm, additional tests, such as movement of the light sources to both sides of the operator's eye level, were performed. Less than six masking effects were found in the semi-circle of vision to the front, and more than one masking was found in the "B" and "C" visual fields. The minimum distance between the centers of two masking effects exceeded 2500 mm when measured as a chord on the semi-circle of vision. A blind area diagram was created to define the exact nature of the blind spots and mirror visibility. Conclusions: Visibility evaluation is an effective way to enable proper and safe operation for agricultural tractor operators. Inclusion of this visibility evaluation test in the general testing process might aid tractor manufacturers.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.