A heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide applicator structure and its path tracking method for economic crops in hilly areas

Abstract

The present invention discloses a heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide applicator structure for cash crops in hilly areas and a path tracking method thereof. It belongs to the field of agricultural machinery technology. It comprises a pesticide applicator body 1, a lifting frame 2 fixed at the front end of the pesticide applicator, a foldable pesticide applicator rod 4 fixed on the lifting frame, a medicine box bracket 9 fixed at the rear end of the pesticide applicator, and a medicine box 8 fixed on the bracket. The pesticide applicator body adopts a crawler-type double-layer platform design, including a crawler-type mobile chassis 11, a double-layer bracket 12, and a central controller and drive circuit control board 6, a water pump 7, a data acquisition and communication module 3, a drone 5 and a drone wireless charging platform 10 are fixed on the bracket; the data acquisition and communication module includes a laser radar 32, a visual sensor 31, a Beidou satellite antenna 33 and a radio receiver 34. The present invention designs corresponding structures and path tracking methods for pesticide application operations in hilly areas, and ultimately realizes precise pesticide application and path tracking of heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide applicators.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of agricultural machinery and relates to a heterogeneous pesticide sprayer for economic crops, and more specifically to a heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide sprayer structure for economic crops in hilly areas and a path tracking method thereof. Background Art

[0002] my country's hilly and mountainous regions are vast, accounting for approximately 70% of its total land area. They are primarily distributed across more than 1,400 counties and districts in 19 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. Their cultivated land and crop planting area each account for one-third of the country's total. Due to the varying slopes, irregular plots, and complex topography of these regions, agricultural mechanization has been severely hampered, leading to the current problem of "no available machinery, and no good machinery to use." This is due to a lack of necessary technical support for the development of agricultural machinery suitable for these regions. Furthermore, my country cultivates one of the most diverse cash crops in the world. The high quality standards required for exporting cash crops necessitate accelerating the mechanization, intelligentization, unmanned operation, and precision-engineered agriculture in these regions. Summary of the Invention

[0003] The purpose of this invention is to design a heterogeneous, collaborative, intelligent pesticide applicator for cash crops in hilly areas. This machine is designed to autonomously navigate and simultaneously apply pesticides, effectively separating the operator from the machine and preventing direct contact between the operator and the pesticide solution. This significantly reduces labor intensity and improves operational efficiency. The crawler-type mobile platform better adapts to hilly operating environments, while the foldable, elevating sprayer boom expands the applicator's operating environment.

[0004] To achieve the above object, the technical solution of the present invention is as follows:

[0005] A heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide spraying machine structure for economic crops in hilly areas comprises a crawler-type mobile chassis (11), a double-layer bracket (12), a lifting frame (2), a foldable pesticide spraying rod (4), a data acquisition and communication module (3), a central controller and a drive circuit control panel (6), a water pump (7), a medicine box (8), a medicine box bracket (9), an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (5), and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) wireless charging platform (10); the double-layer bracket (12) is fixed on the crawler-type mobile chassis (11) to provide support for other components of the pesticide spraying machine; the crawler-type mobile chassis (11) is driven by two independent permanent magnet synchronous motors (112); a battery box (111) is fixed at the front end of the chassis, and batteries are installed in the battery box (111) to power the entire pesticide spraying machine; the lifting frame (2) is fixed at the front end of the pesticide spraying machine to drive the foldable pesticide spraying rod (4) to move up and down. The data acquisition and communication module (3) includes a Beidou antenna (33), a radio receiver (34), a laser radar (32) and a visual sensor (31); the central controller and drive circuit control board (6) are used to process the data acquired by the data acquisition and communication module (3) and drive the various modules of the pesticide applicator; the liquid medicine is stored in a medicine box (8), which is fixed to the rear of the pesticide applicator through a medicine box bracket (9) and is connected to a water pump (7) and a nozzle (42) in sequence; the drone (5) realizes real-time communication with the pesticide applicator through a radio receiver (34) and is parked on a drone wireless charging platform (10).

[0006] Furthermore, the crawler-type mobile chassis (11) provides a mounting platform. When the permanent magnet synchronous motor (112) drives the driving wheel to rotate, the driving wheel, under the action of the reducer driving torque, continuously rolls up the crawler from the rear through the engagement between the gear teeth on the driving wheel and the crawler chain, thereby realizing the position adjustment of the heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide applicator.

[0007] Furthermore, the lifting frame (2) is fixed to the front end of the pesticide applicator, and grooves are formed on both sides of the bracket (21). An electric telescopic rod (23) moves up and down to drive the gear on the top to engage with the chain (22). One end of the chain (22) is fixed to the lower end of the lifting frame (2), and the other end is fixed to the front frame (43) of the foldable pesticide applicator (4). The front frame has sliders on both sides embedded in the grooves on both sides of the bracket (21). The up and down movement of the foldable pesticide applicator (4) is achieved by the engagement of the gear and the chain (22).

[0008] Furthermore, the foldable pesticide application rod (4) is composed of a pesticide application rod (41), a spray head (42), a front frame (43) and an electric telescopic rod (44). The front frame has sliders at both ends embedded in grooves on both sides of the lifting frame. The pesticide application rod (41) is connected to both sides of the front frame by a pin and can be driven by a telescopic rod (44) connected between the front frame and the pesticide application rod to rotate with the pin connecting the front frame (43) and the spray rod (41) as the axis. The spray heads (42) are evenly distributed on the lower side of the spray rod, and the liquid medicine can be evenly sprayed on the crops through a water pump (7).

[0009] Furthermore, the visual sensor (31) and the laser radar (32) are located on the top of the pesticide sprayer and are used to obtain image information around the pesticide sprayer and detect surrounding obstacles respectively. The neural network technology is used to efficiently integrate multi-source perception with various heterogeneous data sources such as maps and meteorological satellite data, and then the distributed feature extraction technology based on deep learning is used to obtain key information to establish a high-precision, real-time updated agricultural information map.

[0010] Furthermore, the Beidou antenna (33) and the radio receiver (34) are respectively located on the upper layer of the double-layer bracket of the pesticide sprayer and the side rear support of the double-layer bracket. The Beidou antenna (33) is used to obtain the satellite position signal of the pesticide sprayer, and the radio receiver (34) is used to obtain the reference position information of the base station. The spatial correlation of the observation errors between the above two types of information is used to remove most of the errors in the mobile station observation data through RTK differential method.

[0011] Furthermore, the central controller and drive circuit control board (6) are Raspberry Pi 5 and STM32F407 control boards, which realize the precise spraying task of economic crops in hilly areas by driving the crawler-type mobile chassis (11), the foldable spraying rod (4), the drone (5) and the water pump (7).

[0012] Furthermore, the UAV (5) is equipped with a high-resolution visual sensor, which can obtain a high-definition image of the current position of the agricultural machinery in real time, extract landmarks, feature points or patterns in the image, realize high-precision perception of the position of the unmanned pesticide sprayer, and establish a visual map of the unmanned pesticide sprayer; secondly, combined with Beidou positioning information, the position information is supplemented and corrected through visual perception data, and a more accurate position estimation of the unmanned pesticide sprayer is performed, which makes up for the problem of limited Beidou signals in complex terrain and improves the positioning accuracy of agricultural machinery in hilly and mountainous areas; the UAV wireless charging platform (10) adopts an 84W RiCharge module with an input voltage of 220V and an output power of 84W, which can wirelessly charge the UAV within a range of 3-8cm.

[0013] The present invention provides a path tracking method for a heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide applicator structure for cash crops in hilly areas, comprising the following steps:

[0014] Step 1: Assuming that the tracks on both sides are exactly the same, the overall center of mass coincides with the geometric center, and without considering the side slip of the tracks, the kinematic model of the pesticide sprayer in the global coordinate system is established based on the kinematic model of the crawler mobile chassis (11):

[0015]

[0016] Where x and y are the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the center of mass of the sprayer in the global coordinate system, respectively; θ is the angle between the longitudinal direction of the sprayer and the X-axis, i.e., the heading angle; υ is the linear velocity of the center of mass along the longitudinal direction of the machine body; and ω is the angular velocity of the machine body.

[0017] Step 2: Let x e and y e are the x-axis and y-axis errors between the actual position of the applicator and the reference position, θ e is the heading angle error, and the differential equation of the trajectory tracking error can be obtained by differentiating it:

[0018]

[0019] Where υ d and ω d are the expected linear velocity and the expected angular velocity respectively;

[0020] Step 3: Select sliding mode variables

[0021]

[0022] Step 4: Design the control input as

[0023]

[0024] Where k1 and k2 are positive constants;

[0025] Step 5: The linear velocity υ and angular velocity ω are determined by the track speeds on both sides and their center distances. The track speeds on both sides are determined by the speeds of the drive motors on both sides, the transmission ratio, and the radius of the drive wheels. So:

[0026]

[0027] Where, L 、υ R are the left and right track speeds, N L 、N R are the speeds of the left and right driving motors respectively, r is the radius of the driving wheel, and i is the transmission ratio of the reducer;

[0028] Step 6: From formula (11), the rotational speeds of the permanent magnet synchronous motors (112) on the left and right sides of the crawler mobile chassis (11) are:

[0029]

[0030] Step 7: Use the data acquisition and communication module (3) to obtain the position and posture information of the pesticide applicator. According to the planned path, use the backstepping control method to adjust the rotation speed of the permanent magnet synchronous motor (112) on the left and right sides of the crawler mobile chassis (11) to adjust the movement angle and displacement of the pesticide applicator in real time.

[0031] Traditional crop spraying relies primarily on manual knapsack sprayers or driver-operated pesticide applicators spraying fixed doses. This is labor-intensive and can lead to uneven spraying, repeated spraying, and missed spraying. Furthermore, hilly areas offer a more complex operating environment with rugged terrain, placing higher demands on the environmental perception and path tracking capabilities of unmanned pesticide applicators.

[0032] To address these issues, the present invention utilizes a crawler-type mobile chassis, a folding spraying boom, and a drone-applicator collaboration to expand the pesticide applicator's operating environment. The crawler-type chassis and folding spraying boom not only reduce the overall size of the pesticide applicator, enabling greater operational flexibility, but the flexible spraying boom also allows it to adapt to different crop application scenarios, improving operational efficiency.

[0033] The beneficial technical effects of the present invention are as follows:

[0034] 1. The crawler-type mobile platform can better adapt to the geographical environment of hilly areas and move more flexibly;

[0035] 2. The coordinated cooperation between the pesticide applicator and the drone can not only improve positioning accuracy, but also better obtain environmental information. At the same time, it can compensate for the impact of signal loss to a certain extent, thereby improving operation efficiency.

[0036] 3. The use of a liftable and foldable spraying rod can meet the spraying needs of different crops, and the folding of the spraying rod can improve the flexibility of the sprayer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] Figure 1 It is a left rear view of the present invention;

[0038] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the crawler-type mobile chassis of the present invention;

[0039] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the lifting frame and foldable spraying rod of the present invention;

[0040] Figure 4 Schematic diagram of path tracking. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] The invention scheme is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the invention examples.

[0042] like Figure 1 The figure shows a left rear view of a heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide spraying machine structure for cash crops in hilly areas. It mainly consists of a crawler mobile chassis (11), a double-layer bracket (12), a data acquisition and communication module (3), a foldable pesticide spraying rod (4), a drone (5), a drone wireless charging platform (10), a central controller and drive circuit control board (6), a water pump (7), a medicine box (8) and a medicine box bracket (9). It also includes the following parts: 31-visual sensor, 32-laser radar, 33-Beidou satellite antenna, 34-radio receiver; 111-battery box, 112-permanent magnet synchronous motor; 21-bracket, 22-chain, 23-electric telescopic rod, 41-pesticide spraying rod, 43-front frame, 44-electric telescopic rod. The crawler mobile chassis (11) uses a sliding mode controller designed based on step 9 to control the motion trajectory. The double-layer bracket (12) is made of aluminum profiles and aluminum plates connected by metal corner pieces. While providing support for the entire heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide sprayer, it also reduces its own weight. The data acquisition and communication module (3) is used to obtain the position, posture, and surrounding environment of the pesticide sprayer in real time, as well as images and radar scanning information. The Beidou antenna (33) is used to obtain the pesticide sprayer satellite position signal, and the radio receiver (34) is used to obtain the base station reference position information. The spatial correlation of the observation errors between the above two types of information is used to remove most of the errors in the mobile station observation data through RTK differential. The drone (5) is equipped with a high-resolution visual sensor, which can obtain high-definition images of the current position of the agricultural machinery in real time, extract landmarks, feature points or patterns in the image, achieve high-precision perception of the position of the unmanned pesticide sprayer, and establish a visual map of the unmanned pesticide sprayer; and combined with positioning information, the position information is supplemented and corrected through visual perception data to make a more accurate position estimate of the unmanned pesticide sprayer. The drone wireless charging platform (10) can wirelessly charge the drone. The central controller and drive circuit control board (6) are used to receive and process the information collected and received by the data acquisition and communication module (3), and achieve the task of precise pesticide application for economic crops in hilly areas by driving the crawler-type mobile chassis (11), the foldable pesticide application rod (4), the drone (5) and the water pump (7).

[0043] like Figure 2The figure shows a schematic diagram of a crawler-type mobile chassis. Considering the large undulating terrain in hilly areas, a crawler-type mobile platform is adopted. The chassis is driven by two independent permanent magnet synchronous motors. When the permanent magnet synchronous motor (112) drives the driving wheel to rotate, the driving wheel, under the action of the reducer driving torque, continuously rolls up the crawler from the rear through the meshing between the gear teeth on the driving wheel and the crawler chain, thereby realizing the position adjustment of the heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide sprayer. Since it is driven by two independent power units, it uses a differential method to turn, with a small turning radius and more flexible turning, which is more suitable for rugged hilly areas. In addition, the crawler-type mobile platform increases the contact area with the ground, increases friction and is not easy to cause the vehicle to sink, which is very suitable for the working environment in hilly areas. A battery box (111) is fixed at the front end of the chassis. The battery box (111) contains batteries to power the entire pesticide sprayer.

[0044] like Figure 3 The figure is a schematic diagram of a lifting frame and a foldable spraying rod. Considering the different spraying heights of different crops at different times and the requirements for flexibility, the use of a foldable spraying rod and a lifting frame can broaden the working environment of the sprayer and meet the spraying needs of different crops at different times. The lifting frame is fixed to the front end of the sprayer. There are grooves on both sides of the bracket (21). An electric telescopic rod (23) moves up and down to drive the gear on the top to engage with the chain (22). One end of the chain (22) is fixed to the lower end of the lifting frame (2), and the other end is fixed to the front frame (43) of the foldable spraying rod (4). The front frame has sliders on both sides embedded in the grooves on both sides of the bracket (21). The up and down movement of the foldable spraying rod (4) is achieved by the engagement of the gear and the chain (22).

[0045] like Figure 4 The figure is a schematic diagram of path tracking, where L is the width of the fuselage, d is the width of the single track, V is the longitudinal forward speed of the fuselage, ω is the angular velocity of the fuselage, and V R and V L are the left and right track linear speeds respectively.

[0046] Assuming that the tracks on both sides are exactly the same, the overall center of mass coincides with the geometric center, and without considering the side slip of the tracks, the kinematic model of the pesticide sprayer in the global coordinate system is established based on the motion model of the tracked mobile chassis (11):

[0047]

[0048] Where x and y are the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the center of mass of the sprayer in the global coordinate system; θ is the angle between the longitudinal direction of the sprayer and the X axis, that is, the heading angle;

[0049] Let x e and y e are the x-axis and y-axis errors between the actual position of the applicator and the reference position, θe is the heading angle error, and the differential equation of the trajectory tracking error can be obtained by differentiating it:

[0050]

[0051] Where υ d and ω d are the expected linear velocity and the expected angular velocity respectively;

[0052] Select sliding mode variables

[0053]

[0054] The control input is designed to be

[0055]

[0056] Where k1 and k2 are positive constants;

[0057] The linear velocity υ and angular velocity ω are determined by the track speeds on both sides and their center distances. The track speeds on both sides are determined by the speeds of the drive motors on both sides, the transmission ratio, and the radius of the drive wheels. So:

[0058]

[0059] Where N L 、N R are the speeds of the left and right driving motors respectively, r is the radius of the driving wheel, and i is the transmission ratio of the reducer.

[0060] From formula (17), the rotational speeds of the permanent magnet synchronous motors (112) on the left and right sides of the crawler mobile chassis (11) are respectively:

[0061]

[0062] The position and posture information of the pesticide applicator is acquired by using a data acquisition and communication module (3). Based on the planned path, a backstepping control method is used to adjust the rotation speed of the permanent magnet synchronous motors (112) on the left and right sides of the crawler-type mobile chassis (11) to adjust the movement angle and displacement of the pesticide applicator in real time.

Claims

1. A path tracking method for a heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide sprayer structure for cash crops in hilly areas, characterized in that: The mechanism comprises a crawler-type mobile chassis (11), a double-layer bracket (12), a lifting frame (2), a foldable spraying rod (4), a data acquisition and communication module (3), a central controller and a drive circuit control board (6), a water pump (7), a medicine box (8), a medicine box bracket (9), a drone (5) and a drone wireless charging platform (10); The method steps are as follows: Step 1: Assuming that the tracks on both sides are exactly the same, the overall center of mass coincides with the geometric center, and without considering the side slip of the tracks, the kinematic model of the sprayer in the global coordinate system is established based on the kinematic model of the crawler mobile chassis (11). （1）； In the formula x 、 y are the horizontal and vertical coordinates of the center of mass of the pesticide applicator in the global coordinate system respectively; θ For the sprayer longitudinally and X The axis angle is the heading angle, υ is the longitudinal linear velocity of the center of mass along the fuselage, and ω is the angular velocity of the fuselage; Step 2: Set x e and y e are the x-axis and y-axis errors between the actual position of the applicator and the reference position, θ e is the heading angle error, and the differential equation of the trajectory tracking error can be obtained by differentiating it: （2）； In the formula υ d and ω d are the expected linear velocity and the expected angular velocity respectively; Step 3: Select sliding mode variables (3); Where s1 is the difference between the actual position of the applicator and the reference position. x Axis error, s2 is y The sum of the arctangent of the product of the axis error and the desired linear velocity and the heading angle error; Step 4: Design the control input as: （4）； in k 1 and k 2 is a positive constant; Step 5: The linear velocity υ and angular velocity ω are determined by the track speeds on both sides and their center distances. The track speeds on both sides are determined by the drive motor speeds, transmission ratios, and drive wheel radius on both sides. So: （5）； Where, υ L 、 υ R are the left and right track linear speeds, N L 、 N R are the speeds of the left and right drive motors respectively, r is the driving wheel radius, i is the transmission ratio of the reducer, L is the width of the machine body, and d is the width of the single-side crawler track; Step 6: From formula (5), the rotational speeds of the permanent magnet synchronous motors (112) on the left and right sides of the crawler mobile chassis (11) are: （6）； Step 7: Use the data acquisition and communication module (3) to obtain the position and posture information of the sprayer. According to the planned path, use the backstepping control method to adjust the rotation speed of the permanent magnet synchronous motor (112) on the left and right sides of the crawler mobile chassis (11) to adjust the movement angle and displacement of the sprayer in real time.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The double-layer bracket (12) is fixed on the crawler-type mobile chassis (11) to provide support for other components of the pesticide applicator; the crawler-type mobile chassis (11) is driven by two independent permanent magnet synchronous motors (112); A battery box (111) is fixed at the front end of the chassis, and batteries are installed in the battery box (111) to power the entire sprayer; the lifting frame (2) is fixed at the front end of the sprayer and can drive the foldable spraying rod (4) to move up and down; the data acquisition and communication module (3) includes a Beidou antenna (33), a radio receiver (34), a laser radar (32) and a visual sensor (31); the liquid medicine is stored in a medicine box (8), which is fixed to the rear of the sprayer through a medicine box bracket (9) and is connected to a water pump (7) and a nozzle (42) in sequence; the drone (5) can realize real-time communication with the sprayer and can be wirelessly charged through the drone wireless charging platform (10); the central controller and the drive circuit control board (6) are used to process the data obtained by the data acquisition and communication module (3) and drive each module of the sprayer to complete path tracking and precise spraying tasks.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The crawler-type mobile chassis (11) provides a mounting platform. When the permanent magnet synchronous motor (112) drives the driving wheel to rotate, the driving wheel, under the action of the reducer driving torque, continuously rolls up the crawler from the rear through the engagement between the gear teeth on the driving wheel and the crawler chain, thereby realizing position adjustment of the heterogeneous collaborative intelligent pesticide sprayer.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The lifting frame (2) is fixed to the front end of the spraying machine, and the bracket (21) includes grooves on both sides, and an electric telescopic rod (23) moves up and down to drive the gear on the top to engage with the chain (22); one end of the chain (22) is fixed to the lower end of the lifting frame (2), and the other end is fixed to the front frame (43) of the foldable spraying rod (4), and the front frame has sliders on both sides embedded in the grooves on both sides of the bracket (21), and the up and down movement of the foldable spraying rod (4) is achieved by the engagement of the gear and the chain (22).

5. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The foldable spraying rod (4) is composed of a spraying rod (41), a spray head (42), a front frame (43) and an electric telescopic rod (44). The front frame has sliders at both ends embedded in grooves on both sides of the lifting frame. The spraying rod (41) is connected to both sides of the front frame by a pin and can be driven by the electric telescopic rod (44) connected between the front frame and the spraying rod to rotate around the pin connecting the front frame (43) and the spraying rod (41). The spray heads (42) are evenly distributed on the lower side of the spraying rod, and the liquid medicine can be evenly sprayed onto the target crop through the water pump (7).

6. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The visual sensor (31) and the laser radar (32) are located on the top of the pesticide sprayer and are used to obtain image information around the pesticide sprayer and detect surrounding obstacles respectively. The neural network technology is used to efficiently integrate multi-source perception with various heterogeneous data sources such as maps and meteorological satellite data. The distributed feature extraction technology based on deep learning is then used to obtain key information to establish a high-precision, real-time updated agricultural information map.

7. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The Beidou antenna (33) and the radio receiver (34) are respectively located on the upper layer of the double-layer bracket of the pesticide sprayer and the side rear support of the double-layer bracket. The Beidou antenna (33) is used to obtain the satellite position signal of the pesticide sprayer, and the radio receiver (34) is used to obtain the reference position information of the base station. The spatial correlation of the observation errors between the above two types of information is used to remove most of the errors in the mobile station observation data through real-time dynamic (RTK) differential method.

8. The method according to claim 2, wherein The central controller and drive circuit control board (6) are Raspberry Pi 5 and STM32F407 control boards, which realize the precise spraying task of economic crops in hilly areas by driving the crawler-type mobile chassis (11), the foldable spraying rod (4), the drone (5) and the water pump (7).

9. The method according to claim 2, wherein The UAV (5) is equipped with a high-resolution visual sensor, which can obtain high-definition images of the current position of the agricultural machinery in real time, extract landmarks, feature points or patterns in the image, realize high-precision perception of the position of the unmanned pesticide sprayer, and establish a visual map of the unmanned pesticide sprayer; secondly, combined with Beidou positioning information, the position information is supplemented and corrected through visual perception data, and the position of the unmanned pesticide sprayer is estimated more accurately, which makes up for the problem of limited Beidou signals in complex terrain and improves the positioning accuracy of agricultural machinery in hilly and mountainous areas; the UAV wireless charging platform (10) adopts an 84W RiCharge module with an input voltage of 220V and an output power of 84W, which can wirelessly charge the UAV within a range of 3-8cm.

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