Title: Real-time image processing for the guidance of a small agricultural field inspection vehicle

Authors: Richard Gottschalk, Xavier Paolo Burgos-Artizzu, Angela Ribeiro, Gonzalo Pajares, Alvaro Sanchez Miralles

Addresses: Artificial Perception Group (GPA), Instituto de Automatica Industrial (IAI), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Carretera de Campo Real km 0,200, 28500 La Poveda, Arganda del Rey, Madrid, Spain. ' Artificial Perception Group (GPA), Instituto de Automatica Industrial (IAI), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Carretera de Campo Real km 0,200, 28500 La Poveda, Arganda del Rey, Madrid, Spain. ' Artificial Perception Group (GPA), Instituto de Automatica Industrial (IAI), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Carretera de Campo Real km 0,200, 28500 La Poveda, Arganda del Rey, Madrid, Spain. ' Dpto. de Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Madrid, Spain. ' Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingeniería – ICAI, Instituto de Investigacion Tecnologica, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain

Abstract: This paper describes the image processing for an autonomous field inspection vehicle that uses a webcam for the navigation between two rows of agricultural crop. The relative vehicle position is calculated by segmentation and classification of the images and then by extracting geometrical lines corresponding to the crop rows. An autonomous vehicle was built and tested successfully in an agricultural environment.

Keywords: autonomous guidance; real-time image processing; precision agriculture; weed mapping; field inspection; autonomous vehicles; webcams; crop rows; robot navigation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2010.030222

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2010 Vol.8 No.1/2/3/4, pp.434 - 443

Published online: 11 Dec 2009 *

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