The paper presents the development of a trajectory path control method for an autonomous tractor on which a broadcast fertilizer distributor is mounted to act as a fertilizer refilling system. The selected navigation system guided the vehicle automatically during backward moving to approach the target point, i.e. fertilizer supplier/tank. We designed a method for steering the system with non-holonomic constraint derived from nonlinear state equations and called it the parallel parking theory. A simulation study of the vehicle's trajectory path and field experiment by using a computer-controlled tractor with four-wheel steering and four-wheel drive were carried out in order to verify the advantages of the proposed controlling method.
展开▼