Implementation and Assessment of an Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) for On-Field Agricultural Operations

In recent years, many studies have been focused on the development and implementation of autonomous ground vehicles (AGV) and teleoperated mobile robotic platforms capable of performing agricultural tasks (soil preparation, crop treatment, harvesting) with limited or no human intervention. The AGVs are emerging technologies where the availability of scientific evidence that clearly states the overall benefits of their implementation in the agricultural sector is still limited. Therefore, this study aims to customize a commercial AGV for specific use in agriculture and test its operating capabilities on-field to perform agricultural tasks coupled with different implements. The electric-tracked AGV used in this study was a compact rover (1.30 × 1.05 m) powered by lead-acid batteries. The AGV was coupled to two self-propelled implements, a rotary flail mower and a rotary tiller. Considering the performance of the AGV and implements, the cutting efficiency (CE%), soil clumping, and bulk density (g cm−3) were evaluated in relation to the towed load. In addition, the energy consumption (kWh) was measured while performing on-field tasks. The driving performance tests allowed to monitor the forward speeds where the maximum speed value corresponded to 0.77 m s−1. In addition, the forward speed was significantly influenced by towed load but not by the time of use. The CE was 36.81% on average, and the rotary tiller operations improved the soil characteristics. The results of this study contribute to the implementation and use of AGV in agriculture to perform specific tasks in the field.