Real-Time Sensory Information for Remote Supervision of Autonomous Agricultural Machines

Mann, D. D.; Edet, Uduak; Green, Mitchell; Folorunsho, O.J.; Simundsson, Avery; Ogidi, Franklin

doi:10.5772/intechopen.99496

Cited by 3 publications

References 52 publications

(68 reference statements)

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Implementation of a human‐aware robot navigation module for cooperative soft‐fruit harvesting operations

Guevara

Hanheide

Parsons

2023

Journal of Field Robotics

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In the last decades, robotic solutions have been introduced in agriculture to improve the efficiency of tasks such as spraying, plowing, and seeding. However, for a more complex task like soft‐fruit harvesting, the efficiency of experienced human pickers has not been surpassed yet by robotic solutions. Thus, in the immediate future, human labor will probably be still necessary for picking tasks while robotic platforms could be used as collaborators, supporting the pickers in the transportation of the harvested fruit. This cooperative harvesting strategy creates a human–robot interaction (HRI) that requires significant further development in human‐aware safe navigation and effective bidirectional communication of intent. In fact, although agricultural robots are considered small/medium size machinery, they still represent a risk of causing injuries to human collaborators, especially if people are not trained to work with robots or robot operations are not intuitive. Avoiding such injury is the aim of this work which contributes to the development, implementation, and evaluation of a human‐aware navigation (HAN) module that can be integrated into the autonomous navigation system of commercial agricultural robots. The proposed module is responsible for the detection and monitoring of humans working around the robot and uses this information to activate safety actions depending on whether the human presence is considered at risk or not. Apart from ensuring a physically safe HRI, the proposed module deals with the comfort level and psychological safety of human coworkers. The latter is possible by using an explicit human–robot communication strategy that lets both know of the other's intentions, increasing the level of trust and reducing inefficient pauses triggered by unnecessary safety actions. The proposed HAN solution was integrated into a commercial agricultural robot and tested in several situations that are expected to happen during cooperative harvesting operations. The results of an usability assessment illustrated the benefits of the proposal in terms of safety, efficiency, and ergonomics.

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Implementation of a human‐aware robot navigation module for cooperative soft‐fruit harvesting operations

Guevara

Hanheide

Parsons

2023

Journal of Field Robotics

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IoT as a Backbone of Intelligent Homestead Automation

Dobrojević

Bačanin

2022

Electronics

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The concepts of smart agriculture, with the aim of highly automated industrial mass production leaning towards self-farming, can be scaled down to the level of small farms and homesteads, with the use of more affordable electronic components and open-source software. The backbone of smart agriculture, in both cases, is the Internet of Things (IoT). Single-board computers (SBCs) such as a Raspberry Pi, working under Linux or Windows IoT operating systems, make affordable platform for smart devices with modular architecture, suitable for automation of various tasks by using machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision (CV). Similarly, the Arduino microcontroller enables the building of nodes in the IoT network, capable of reading various physical values, wirelessly sending them to other computers for processing and furthermore, controlling electronic elements and machines in the physical world based on the received data. This review gives a limited overview of currently available technologies for smart automation of industrial agricultural production and of alternative, smaller-scale projects applicable in homesteads, based on Arduino and Raspberry Pi hardware, as well as a draft proposal of an integrated homestead automation system based on the IoT.

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Real-Time Sensory Information for Remote Supervision of Autonomous Agricultural Machines

Mann¹,

Edet²,

Green³

et al. 2021

Technology in Agriculture

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The concept of the driverless tractor has been discussed in the scientific literature for decades and several tractor manufacturers now have prototypes being field-tested. Although farmers will not be required to be physically present on these machines, it is envisioned that they will remain a part of the human-automation system. The overall efficiency and safety to be attained by autonomous agricultural machines (AAMs) will be correlated with the effectiveness of information sharing between the AAM and the farmer through what might be aptly called an automation interface. In this supervisory scenario, the farmer would be able to both receive status information and send instructions. In essence, supervisory control of an AAM is similar to the current scenario where farmers physically present on their machines obtain status information from displays integrated into the machine and from general sensory information that is available due to their proximity to the operating machine. Therefore, there is reason to expect that real-time sensory information would be valuable to the farmer when remotely supervising an AAM through an automation interface. This chapter will provide an overview of recent research that has been conducted on the role of real-time sensory information to the task of remotely supervising an AAM.

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Real-Time Sensory Information for Remote Supervision of Autonomous Agricultural Machines

Cited by 3 publications

References 52 publications

Implementation of a human‐aware robot navigation module for cooperative soft‐fruit harvesting operations

Implementation of a human‐aware robot navigation module for cooperative soft‐fruit harvesting operations

IoT as a Backbone of Intelligent Homestead Automation

Real-Time Sensory Information for Remote Supervision of Autonomous Agricultural Machines

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