Development of sensor data fusion for obstacle detection for electric mini tractor

Abstract

Automation in the agriculture space has become the need of the hour. Tractors assist farmers by imparting time-efficient power, comfort, and speed to farming operations. Autonomous/Smart tractors can improve the capability and productivity of farming operations. For the same, the obstacle detection system and motion planning system are needed. So, to forge ahead, this research work aims to develop sensor fusion data for obstacle detection in electric mini tractors. Automation task has two aspects: perceiving the environment and navigation. Perception is done with help of a camera, lidar, and ultrasonic sensors. The camera sensor is used for obstacle identification and localization. The distance of the obstacle from the vehicle is captured by the lidar and ultrasonic sensors. Different features of the obstacle captured by sensor modules are combined and used to develop an obstacle detection system. The conditional algorithm is developed for the sensor data fusion to ensure the synchronous working of the system. The obstacle detection system is developed with the help of sensor data fusion for an electric mini tractor.