Development of Crawler-Type Robot Tractor based on GPS and IMU

The objective of this research was to modify the crawler-type tractor into a robot crawler-type tractor by applying the developed controller and algorithms. The robot tractor used RTK-GPS and IMU as navigation sensors that can be used in different agricultural running conditions. The platform used was a 59-kW YANMAR CT801 crawler-type tractor with a built-in controller and actuators. A crawler-type tractor is a vehicle with tracks instead of wheels. It is very suited for soft ground and mud agricultural applications. Nowadays crawler-type tractors are widely used in agricultural industry due to their lower ground pressure and high traction efficiency. The tractor was modified to be able to control various functions or to obtain data from different sensors electronically. An autonomous running test to evaluate accuracy was conducted. The evaluated lateral and heading accuracies were about 1 cm and 0.2 deg respectively.