An Autonomous Rice Transplanter Guided by Global Positioning System and Inertial Measurement Unit

This paper reports the development of an automated rice transplanter guided by a global positioning system and an inertia measurement unit using the controller area network bus. The actuator control command and data communication protocols comply with the ISO 11783. The project aims to develop an autonomous agricultural system for operation in the paddy field. The automated rice transplanter presented in this paper is the first stage in achieving the project objective. This paper focuses on the development of sensor and main computer connections to the operating autonomous unit and the use of common control protocols for each of the automated machines. A simple steering control algorithm was used for straight traveling. The automated rice transplanter made a turn at the headland of the paddy field and moved to the next desired path. After 12 straight operations, the rms lateral deviation was observed to be less than 0.04 m and the rms heading angle error was less than 3.6 deg. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.