Development of autonomous vehicles equipped with handling devises

日本农林面临后继者短缺、劳动力老龄化和女性劳动力增加、成本进一步降低、对安全优质产品的需求和环保生产等诸多问题。在这种情况下，机器人拖拉机的发展研究在近二十年来一直受到人们的关注。为此，研究的目标主要是通过引入自动驾驶车辆来实现野外作业的自动化。然而，为了帮助生活在老龄化农村社区的人们，自动驾驶汽车的功能要求是操纵能力。同时，自动搬运需要被搬运物体的精确定位，以及精确接近物体的轨迹控制。本研究正是基于这一考虑进行的。结果，得到了如下结果：1.将反馈项引入到轨迹控制器中，显著提高了轨迹控制器的路径跟踪能力。允许在极坐标下扩展该控制算法。开发了化肥自动灌装系统。开发了自动驾驶车辆牵引挂车控制器的轨迹，并进行了计算机仿真验证。研制了一套激光姿态测量系统，用于测量被操纵物体的姿态。一种引导系统，使自动车辆能够跟随人类操作的拖拉机。为精确装卸重物，设计了一台由计算机控制的三自由度前置式装载机。为研究自动驾驶车辆，开发了一个面向对象的三维动画仿真器。

Japanese agriculture and forestry are facing many problems, which include shortage of successors, aging of labor and increase of female labors, further cost reduction, demands for safe and high quality products and environmentally conscious production. Under the condition, research for the development of robotic tractors has been drawn attentions for these twenty years. For this purpose the target of the research is mainly placed on the automation of filed operations by introduction of autonomous vehicles. However handling ability is required as the function of autonomous vehicles to help people who are living in aging rural community. At the same time, automatic handling requires precise positioning of an object to be handled, and trajectory control to approach the object accurately. This study has been conducted based on this consideration. As a result, following results was obtained.1. Introduction of feedback term into trajectory controller reported previously improved its path-tracking ability significantly. Extension of this control algorithm in the polar coordinates enabled.2. System for automatic fertilizer refill was developed.3. Trajectory for controller for a trailer towed by an autonomous vehicle was developed and tested by computer simulation.4. A laser system was developed to measure posture of an objective to be handled.5. A guidance system that enabled an autonomous vehicle to follow a human operated tractor.6. A computer-controlled front-loader having three degrees of freedom was constructed for precise handling of heavy materials.7. An object-oriented simulator with three dimensional animation was developed for autonomous vehicle study.