Development of an Autonomous Driving Path-Generation Algorithm for a Crawler-Type Ridge-Forming Robot

The agricultural sector is currently facing problems including a decline in the agricultural population, labor shortages, and an aging population. To solve these problems and increase agricultural productivity, the development and distribution of autonomous agricultural machinery is necessary. Since autonomous agricultural machinery is operated along a pre-defined path, it is essential to generate an autonomous driving path that takes into account the driving and working methods of the agricultural machinery. In this study, an autonomous driving path-generation algorithm for the autonomous operation of a crawler-type ridge-forming robot is proposed. The proposed algorithm defines the field boundary using the geodetic coordinates of the field boundary points and the size of the robot, generates working line segments within the field boundary, and generates three types of waypoints, which constitute an autonomous driving path based on the autonomous driving operating scenario. To verify the proposed algorithm, tests were conducted using four types of field boundary points with different shapes, and the results are presented. As a result of the simulation test, when a ridge was created using the generated autonomous driving path, the area occupied by the ridge in the total field area according to the field types of a rectangle, trapezoid, pentagon, and hexagon was indicated to be 80, 77, 85, and 77%, respectively.