FARM-BOT

The compact tractor 3033R is a 3-cylinder diesel series vehicle of the company John Deere.
The high maneuverability in combination with a power of 32 hp, allow a wide range of applications of the tractor. The field of application of the tractor ranges from maintenance and clearing work in the municipal sector to light soil cultivation in the field.
As part of the NaLamKI project, the tractor will be used to inspect wheat, sugar beet and corn fields.
To this end, sensors and actuators will be added to the series-produced vehicle to enable it to drive autonomously through the fields. In addition to the pure inspection of plants, it should also be possible to autonomously operate front and rear mounted implements in the field.
The prototypical further development of the vehicle deals on the hardware level with the control of the steering, brake and hydraulic device. The goal at this point is to develop a vehicle mode in addition to manual operation that allows driving without a control person. For this purpose, the tractor is equipped with sensor technology that enables orientation in the field. Due to the given field crops and their cultivation in row crops, a roughly structured environment is available, to which the driving in the crop is oriented. The system must be robust enough to ensure that disturbance variables such as weeds, stunted or no longer present plants do not affect the planned path of the vehicle, nor do fluctuating weather and soil conditions.