Abstract

The problem of controlling the interaction of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with ground-based robotic service platforms that perform the functions of transporting and transferring physi-cal resources needed to perform agricultural operations on open ground is considered. The com-bined use of heterogeneous ground and air robotic means expands the functional and sensory capabilities of automatic processing of agricultural land. In a number of cases, for example, when servicing energy supply systems and transporting air means, the problem of physical interaction arises between an unmanned aerial vehicle and a ground service robotic platform. The complexity of solving this problem is associated with the problems of landing, fixing and mechanized pro-cessing of batteries and agricultural resources placed on an aircraft on a service platform, as well as managing the sequence of service of a UAV group. Compared with ground equipment, the use of UAVs in agricultural tasks provides a number of advantages: lack of physical contact with the ground and soil compaction, a wider monitoring and processing area, better treatment of crops with liquid means due to the rotation of rotors without the use of additional devices. Available prototypes of service robotic platforms are distinguished by the complexity of internal mecha-nisms, the speed of service, the algorithms for the joint operation of the platform and the aircraft during landing and maintenance of battery. Autonomous UAV landing in modern research is con-sidered not only on a fixed site, but also on a mobile platform that carries out movement in various environments. Based on the results of the analysis of existing approaches, a classification of exist-ing service systems installed on robotic and mechanized platforms has been compiled. The pro-cessing characteristics of some common crops are considered. A list of operations of the agricultural production process, their duration and cost, as well as the possibility of mechanization. It is concluded that the cost of non-mechanized operations is much higher. A method has been devel-oped for assessing the required composition and quantity of equipment for cultivating agricultural land, characterized by a multi-criteria assessment using a linear combination of three main crite-ria for the total processing time, energy consumed, the cost of the equipment involved and providing numerical modeling and optimization of the volume of involved heterogeneous robotic systems. The results of numerical and simulation modeling of the amount of robotic equipment required for processing agricultural land using arbitrary units and approximate ranges of input parameter values are presented. The simulation was performed in the developed AgrobotModeling software, which also implements visualization of the interaction of unmanned aerial vehicles with agricultural ground service platforms and provides decision support on the optimal number of robotic tools needed to process a given agricultural land area.

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