Automatic guidance of a farm tractor along curved paths, using a unique CP-DGPS

International audiencePrecision agriculture involves very accurate farm vehicle control along recorded paths, which are not necessarily straight lines. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of achieving this task with a CP-DGPS as the unique sensor. The vehicle heading is derived according to a Kalman state reconstructor, and a nonlin-ear velocity independent control law is designed, relying on chained systems properties. Field experiments, demonstrating the capabilities of our guidance system, are reported and discussed