Integrating DGPS and 3D Gyro Sensor in Tractor Guidance System for Precision Farming

Yun Zhang, Kazuhiro Nii, Masayuki Uchiyama, and Keiichi Inoue

Abstract:	Tractor guidance system is the subject in Collaborative Development of Innovation Seeds potentiality verification stage" (FY 2006) of Japan Science and Technology Agency. For decreasing production cost and minimizing the environmental impact of farming [National Research Council (NRC), (1997)], the goal of this system is to support the operator to control the tractor working route along the designed lane or trajectory. Farm working, such as plowing, manure, sowing can be more easy, more accurate and more efficient. The farming data can also be collected more simply and precisely for economic or other useful analysis. In this system, accuracy requirement is decimeter level. Because of considering the actual situation of the farmer, one single frequency Differential GPS (DGPS) receiver and one relatively low-cost 3D Gyro sensor were proposed. The alternative integration solution basing on standard 2nd Kalman Filter (KF) [Kalman, R, E. (1960)] algorithm [Wan, E. A, can der Merwe, R. (2001)] was developed to integrate DGPS and Gyro data for eliminating GPS pseudo-range error and improve the performance of the system. KF solution would estimate data with a cycle 10Hz data calculation. Two important features in this system were: .. Providing more accurate and continuous real-time data, such as position, speed and heading; .. Strengthening the state predicting function, because of considering the effective of the system; Performance analysis of this system would be obtained from several field experiments. Accuracy was evaluated by comparing with RTK positioning results. Reliability was proved from test results in urban environment. Efficiency was also assessed using offset between tractor track and designed line in the farm."
Published in:	Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2007) September 25 - 28, 2007 Fort Worth Convention Center Fort Worth, TX
Pages:	104 - 112
Cite this article:	Zhang, Yun, Nii, Kazuhiro, Uchiyama, Masayuki, Inoue, Keiichi, "Integrating DGPS and 3D Gyro Sensor in Tractor Guidance System for Precision Farming," Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2007), Fort Worth, TX, September 2007, pp. 104-112.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In