Route planning for a robotic platform for applying mineral fertilizers

Abstract

The implementation of technological operations for the application of fertilizers and chemical plant protection products is carried out during the cultivation of most crops, and the yield directly depends on the quality of these operations. However, the performance of these works has a negative impact on the environment and the health of people who operate machines for applying fertilizers and chemical plant protection products. In this regard, the intellectualization and robotization of the process of applying fertilizers and chemical plant protection products, which eliminates the presence of a machine operator, is an urgent scientific direction. The use of robotic platforms has a positive economic effect, as it reduces labor costs per unit area of the field, increases the duration of working hours, productivity and quality of fertilizer distribution over the field surface. The coordinate application of specified doses of mineral fertilizers in accordance with the map of nutrients in the soil makes it possible to equalize soil fertility. A promising direction is also the use of robotic machine links, where the main machine is equipped with the most powerful hardware and software base, which allows it to be used to build a map of the work area, taking into account the terrain of the field and vegetation, the other robotic machines working in the same link with the main one receive information about the trajectory from it and in parallel, fertilizers are distributed over the surface of the work area. In this paper, the specifics of planning the route of a robotic platform for the application of mineral fertilizers are considered, and the results of processing point areas obtained during the study of the characteristics of the platform's movement along the work site are presented.