Advanced Controllers for Autonomous Farming Machines

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Northstar Robotics, a Canadian company in Winnipeg, is developing a cloud software platform and specialized**sensing, perception and control to retrofit existing human-operated farming machines into autonomous ones.**This will allow producers to run their entire farms from a fleet of autonomous machines. There are two**research issues for which the company is currently seeking technical solutions in order to bring their product**closer to commercialization: (i) to develop a robust steering and trajectory control system for existing**hydraulically-actuated farm machines capable of navigating a crop with high positional accuracy and (ii), to**develop a robust high-speed row-following system that can avoid damaging crop rows.**In this project, the applicant will conduct a research to synthesize, prototype and evaluate a software and**accompanied hardware to facilitate auto-guided farm machines. The product must work with the existing**by-wire, mechanical or hydraulic systems and link information on a vehicle's status to a central station as**appropriate. More specifically, we will: (i) develop controllers for lane and row followings, (ii) investigate the**integration of the controllers with the existing machine control, (iii) study reliability needed for critical**machine-to-machine communication including very short and stable latency and (iv), understand the**productivity gains and return on investment for farms and end users of the technology.**This project will allow Northstar Robotics to work closely with researchers at the University of Manitoba to**systematically study issues that ultimately address the labor shortage in agriculture that prevents farmers from**maximizing their food production. These issues introduce unique challenges that need to be investigated to**make the final products appealing to farmers. The potential for company's growth in terms of sales, new hires,**revenue and staying competitive is enormous.