Applied research, Autonomous Vehicle

Design of an autonomous and electric agricultural robot

Client:

Partners:

Project duration: January, 2017 – October, 2021

Project
Project description

The challenges related to productivity in the agricultural sector lead to some challenges regarding traditional working methods. One solution is to rethink agricultural vehicles so that they are smaller, lighter, hybrid or electric, and have a sufficient level of automation to reduce the need for labour. As part of this project, Elmec and IVI have joined forces to develop a concept of an autonomous agricultural robot with an electric motor. Powered by four electric wheel motors and equipped with an autonomous navigation system, the robot will be used to perform repetitive agricultural tasks such as mechanical weeding, soil and plant identification and characterization..

Objectives

Design a 100% electric tractor without cab and drive-by-wire
Replace hydraulic systems with electrical systems
Develop a structure capable of hosting and interfacing with the navigation system developed as part of the ARION project
To meet the specific requirements and constraints of farmers.
Use conventional agricultural tools such as vegetable crop cultivators

Expected results

Develop a prototype of a autonomous, electric, and vegetable crop cultivator robot, tested in the field
Collect field data

More information

Equipment needed

Vehicular network analysis equipment
Amesim (multiphysics simulation software)

Project manager

Marc-Antoine Legault, ing., M.Sc.A

Funding program

CRSNG (RDA2), Passeport Innovation, InnovÉÉ

IVI Research Program

This project was conducted as part of our ARION research program, applied to off-road autonomous and connected vehicles. It has led our team to developed its research capability for autonomous vehicle navigation. To learn more about this project and what we achieved in this program, watch the video below!