Image-based Automatic Following Control of an Agricultural Vehicle with a Central Catadioptric Camera

Abstract

This paper proposes an image-based path-following control system for an agricultural vehicle with a central catadioptric camera. In an agricultural field, the vehicle is expected to run along a ridge and boundaries between tilled and untilled, or cut and uncut areas. Therefore, we conducted two experiments : a straight-line-following control and a turning control. Because of their wide view area, central catadioptric cameras were very effective in keeping target objects in the field of view. In addition, although such cameras had severe distortion, good performance was obtained using image-based control with robustness to the calibration error.