Abstract
This paper proposes a brush-cutting robot which can cut high weeds and grass automatically by hand-held brush-cutter sold in hardware store. The robot vehicle is constructed with a center articulated body, a manipulating mechanism of the brush-cutter, motor controller and sensors for self-localization. In order to get its own position continuously, two Laser Range Finders (LRF), a GPS campus and odometry encoder for each wheel are installed. Authors proposed Sensor Steering Mechanism (SSM) for the lateral guided vehicle with steering mechanism. This robot is applied SSM for the center articulated body to follow the way point line on the 2-D map. The map for self-localization is constructed with a 0.1m by 0.1m grid that is measured by the 3-D LRF. The experimental set up was developed and installed in the control program and then autonomous mowing was tested, leading to the results of running and mowing in the quadrangle of the No. 4 building of science and engineering at National Defense Academy. As a result, the proposed system achieved an error of 0.2m or less for the way point line following performance. The developed brush-cutting robot successfully completed the work without untreated area by providing an appropriate overlap by the result.
