Last week the biggest trade fair for agricultural technology in the world, the Agritechnica 2015, took place in Hanover. On the one hand we were part of the booth of the chair Agricultural System Technology of Technical University Dresden. On the other hand we took the opportunity to gain an insight into the trends and the state-of-the-art technologies in the agricultural sector. The chair Agricultural System Technology presented the modular plantation robot elWObot, that should help to do various work, e.g. crop spraying in vineyards and orchards, all autonomously in the future. In this context we introduced our central control unit Generic Control Box. The Generic Control Box is hereby used for the base control of the research vehicle elWObot and coordinates the four individually driven and steerable wheels. Furthermore we presented the possibilities of the Generic Control Box in the field of autonomous navigation based on laser data.
Agritechnica becomes the venue for the most reasonable manufacturers, suppliers and service providers in the field of agriculture every two years. They use the fair to show innovations and to present their product range to the public. Therefore, the use of assistance functions or the automation of small, flexible robots to relieve the driver, increase productivity and thus to save time and money, gets more and more attention.
On this account, the Robot Makers GmbH showed different approaches that can be used for the automation of agricultural vehicles. So, the base control of the elWObot with the help of the Generic Control Box was presented and also an navigation approach with laser data was shown. This approach enables the possibility of an autonomous ride through the rows, without the necessity of GPS.
The Agritechnica was a very interesting fair that helped us to get much information and impressions. Besides, we got to know many interesting people and were able to establish many new contacts. Therefore, we want to say thank you for all the interest you have shown and all the diversified conversations on our booth. We would also like to say thank you to the chair Agricultural System Technology of Technical University Dresden for the possibility to present us at their booth.
