Abstract
This article describes a modular and scalable charging and navigation concept for electrified field robots and other agricultural machines. The concept consists of an underbody charging system on a trailer and a modular navigation box. The underlying conductive charging process is compared to other charging techniques. Charging time in relation to charging current and mean power consumption in field use is displayed. In the navigation box, data of various sensors are combined by means of multi-sensor fusion regarding the precise time of arrival. Time synchronization is achieved by a novel method for compensating the data latency jitter by employing Kalman-based timestamp filtering. Furthermore, navigation functionalities, such as motion planning and mapping, are presented.
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Artikel wird ein modulares und skalierbares Lade- und Navigationskonzept für elektrische Feldroboter und andere landwirtschaftliche Maschinen vorgestellt. Das Konzept besteht aus einem Unterbodenladesystem platziert auf einem Anhänger und einer modularen Navigationsbox. Der zugrundeliegende konduktive Ladeprozess wird mit anderen Ladetechniken verglichen. Die Ladezeit wird in Abhängigkeit vom Ladestrom und dem mittleren Leistungsbedarf der Feldarbeit dargestellt. In der Navigationsbox werden verschiedene Sensordaten kombiniert. Die Sensordatenfusion erfolgt unter Beachtung der präzise bestimmten Ankunftszeiten der Daten. Dabei wird die Zeitsynchronisierung durch eine neuartige Methode zur Kompensation von Latenzschwankungen basierend auf einer Zeitstempelfilterung mittels Kalman-Filter erzielt. Des Weiteren werden Navigationsfunktionalitäten wie Bewegungsplanung und Kartierung präsentiert.
Funding statement: The authors would like to acknowledge the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft for funding the COGNAC lighthouse project.
About the authors
Julia Osten received her degree in physics from the Technical University Dresden (Germany) in the year 2010, and her PhD in the year 2015 from the same university for her research work at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). Afterwards, she was a postdoc at the HZDR until 2018. Now, she is a research associate at the Fraunhofer IVI (Dresden, Germany). She coordinates the work package autonomous field robotics in the COGNAC lighthouse project.
Catrin Weyers received her degree in renewable energy systems (2017) from the Technical University Dresden, Germany. In 2018, she was a research associate at the chair of energy storage systems at TU Dresden. Since 2019, she has been a research associate at the Fraunhofer IVI, Dresden. Her research interests include electromobility, energy management, energy storage systems, automation and charging technologies.
Kevin Bregler received his degree in mechanical engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2016. He is now a research associate in the Robot and Assistive Systems research department at the Fraunhofer IPA in Stuttgart. His research focus is on autonomous mobile robots. He coordinates the area of field robotics research at the Fraunhofer IPA.
Thomas Emter received his degree in electrical engineering and information technology from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2005. He is now a research associate in the Multi-Sensor Systems research group at the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies, and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe, Germany. His research focuses on multi-sensor fusion and SLAM for autonomous mobile robots.
Janko Petereit received his degree in electrical engineering and information technology from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2009, where he also received his PhD in informatics in 2016. He now manages the Multi-Sensor Systems research group at the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe, Germany. His research focuses on motion planning and multi-sensor fusion for autonomous mobile robots.
Acknowledgment
Julia Osten and Catrin Weyers would like to thank Tim Vorwerk and Matthias Breitkopf for technical drawing and calculation. We are thankful for proof reading done by Kathy Lindt.
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