Technical details
Chassis
The EyeSonic field robot is a three-wheel mounted robot of which the chassis is based on the concept of the Forward Thinking field robot. This robot was build by the student team from Agrotechnology in 2007.
The chassis exists mainly of a big aluminium box. On the robot, two rear wheels are mounted and in front a steering wheel is placed. In the robot, all the hardware is placed like a VIA 2,0 GHz processor, two RoboteQ AX3500 controllers, a Basic Atom sensor controller, a Basic Stamp sensor controller, one steering and two driving motors. The front wheel is also driven by an electro motor. The steering of the frontwheel is done via a toothed belt. In this way, the steering motor is brought inside the alluminium frame. The steering angle is regulated by a potentio meter.
Navigation
EyeSonic navigates through maize rows with help of a Sick Laser scanner.
A Xsens MTi is mounted on the robot to maintain course within the maize rows and on the headland it is used to turn. The MTi contains gyroscopes, accelerometers and megnetometers in 3D.
Artificial plant detection
For the detection of the purple artificial plants a firewire camera is available. The camera is directed to about a meter in front of the Eyesonic robot, so it can detect the artifial plants in time. After the detection of the artificial plant the Eyesonic robot has to spray the artificial plants on the right spot.
Software
EyeSonic is programmed with LabVIEW 8.5 from National Instruments. For the machine vision applications, Vision Assistent 8.5 is used.
Properties EyeSonic
| Chassis | |
| W x L x H | 35 x 70 x 45 cm |
| Ground clearance | 5.5 cm |
| Weight | 35 kg |
| Model/make | selfmade |
| Drivetrain | |
| Engine (driving) | 3 DC engines, 30V, 90W |
| Engine (steering) | 1 DC engine, 30V, 90W |
| Conception | Three-wheel driven |
| Power | 2 lead acid battery for engine motors 1x 10Ah 1x7.2ah 12V 1 lead acid battery for computer, 12V, 10Ah |
| Speed | max. 1 m/s |
| Control | |
| Microcontroller | 2 RoboteQ AX3500 motor controller |
| Computer | VIA Esther 2.0 GHz, 1.0 Gb RAM memory |
| Sensor controller | Basic Atom 40 m |
| Sensor controller | Basic Stamp BS2E |
| Software | National Intruments LabVIEW 8.5 |
| Sensors | |
| Distance | Sick Laser Scanner |
| Steering | Potentio meter |
| Motor speed | Pulse counter (CNY37) |
| Compass | Xsens MTi |
| Camera | Unibrain Fire i-board M12 |
© EyeSonic - Student Field Robot from Agrotechnology, Wageningen University