Adaptive Multi-Robot Communication System and Collision Avoidance Algorithm for Precision Agriculture

Abstract

In precision farming technology, the interest of the researchers has been focused on the applications of autonomous mobile robots for agricultural operations such as planting, inspection, spraying, and harvesting. However, each autonomous robot generally performs a single agricultural task. In this context, complete autonomy in precision farming can be achieved by using coordinated multi-robot systems that can easily and safely cooperate to accomplish agricultural tasks. The efficiency of the multi-robot system depends on the number of robots, the size of the robots, the distance between each robot, the instant location and heading angle of the robots, and the size of the farmland. This paper describes the development of wireless Robot to Robot (R2R) communication system architecture and the collision avoidance algorithm for multi-robot precision farming applications. The developed system uses the fusion of a digital compass and GPS receiver for wirelessly broadcasting the spatial and temporal data of the mobile robots through WiFi. In this study, WiFi broadcasting was chosen for reasons such as the advantages of long wireless signal range and strength, not being easily affected by weather and dust, low cost, and so on. The proposed system realizes the real-time wireless broadcasting of the mobile robot information for eliminating the collision of mobile robots and improving the level of safety management. The results show that the system has flexible, reliable, and adaptable solution, and thus can increase the efficiency of the multi-robot system in precision farming applications.