Obtsplantage in Holland

Automation in pomiculture

The handling of commercial vehicles has become much more comfortable due to the rise of assistance systems. However, running these systems does not replace a human operator as the center of the process. People still have undertake a bulk of tasks and coordinate and control the assistance system. Therefore, they remain inside the vehicle and are e.g. exposed to health risks. To protect and relieve them, autonomous systems can be used.

Obtsplantage in Holland

Autonomous Navigation offers great potential for the agricultural sector. With words and deeds we will help you to exhaust it entirely. Our products can be used in various applications in the fruit and vegetable sector. Modifications are only needed at the lowest level. In order to give you an impression how such a concept can be implemented we will show you the example of autonomous navigation in orchards.

Challenges in orchards

The most important fruit trees for the German agriculture are apples, sweet cherries, plums, sour cherries and pears. The percentage share of the entire orchards are currently at 44% for apples, 7.4% for sweet cherries, 5.4% for plums, 3.2% for sour cherries, and 2.7% for pears.

Due to the falling prices in orchards, a further mechanization of previously manual work has become necessary. Plantations were specially adapted for making this possible. Thus, commercial plantations are these days build up with structure. Fruit trees are arranged in parallel rows. The distance of the rows and the distance of the trees differs within the range, according to different species of fruit. The size of the trees is also limited (low-stem trees).

Most commonly work on plantations is done with vehicles, whether it is the processing of the tree and the ground or the transportation of the harvest. Because of the evenly distributed plantations which rarely change, the routes of the vehicles are always the same. Nevertheless, they are completely navigated by human drivers even at very low speed. These have to spend a lot of attention on driving and are spatially bound to the vehicle. By using autonomous systems the efficiency and work safety can be improved. At health-threatening work instead of a driver an operator controls the autonomous vehicle from a safe distance. In case of malfunction the operator can stop the vehicle at any time.

According to the great potential of the autonomous navigation, we have developed a wide spectrum of services and products that perfectly fit this application. It is already possible to realize complete complete autonomous vehicle control. The navigation within the line of the trees can not be done reliably by using simple GPS because the signal is often disturbed by the trees and the local geographical situation. The vehicle instead is oriented according to the environment with the help of sensors and relies on what it “sees”. If the vehicle leaves the lines of trees and reaches cleared area – e.g. for transporting harvesting baskets to the storage – the system switches to navigation via GPS.

Possible scenarios

The benefits of the autonomous navigation are illustrated at two concrete scenarios.

Crop spraying

Pest control is a very interesting application for autonomous navigation. The process looks as follows. The vehicle is at the beginning of the first line of trees. The operator commands to start the crop spraying. In this program the exact route, the speed, and if required the quantity of pestizide individually requested by the several trees is saved. The vehicle independently starts to move and executes the program. Now, the operator has only the task to monitor the vehicle and do an emergency stop via remote control if necessary. Thus, the operator is not directly exposed to health-threatening fluid. When the vehicle arrives the end of the route, it automatically stops and waits for further instructions.

Employment of special equipment

The autonomous navigation can also make it easier to use special equipment, e.g. a trimmer. Depending on the purpose and device type a corresponding program is loaded. It offers information for the autonomous control to the vehicle. The operator can then shift his focus on steering. Pausing of the program as well as modification and the fine tuning is possible at any time. Speed can be reduced at places where you have to work more accurately. The medium-time goal is to develop a completely autonomous control of special equipment where no human driver has to sit on the vehicle.

These are two examples for a variety of tasks which can arise. We will be pleased to non-bindingly discuss further application with you.

Share this post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.