Modular Platform for Agricultural and Construction Robotics

• Subject Area: Systems Engineering
• Term: Funded in 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 544633147

In view of climate and environmental protection, demographic change and socio-economic boundary conditions, the agricultural and construction industries are facing enormous challenges. Agricultural and construction robotics opens up a wide range of possibilities to meet these challenges. Immense progress has been made in this field in recent years. However, technological, organizational and economic constraints continue to hamper the widespread use of agricultural and construction robots. With system-oriented research in this field, the Institute of Electromobility aims to make a significant contribution to overcoming these impediments. The research focuses on the manipulation of complex objects, robot-robot interaction and human-robot interaction in the agricultural and construction industries. The entire spectrum of agricultural processes (sowing, plant nutrition, protection and care as well as harvesting) and construction processes (earthworks, shell construction, interior fitting, dismantling and removal as well as maintenance) is considered. Up to now, the research activities in the group have relied on vehicles and machines from project partners, which were usually equipped specifically for the projects and were only available for the duration of the projects. The modular platform for agricultural and construction robotics opens up extensive opportunities for long-term experimental research for the group. The platform consists of two mobile robots, each with two robot arms, which can be combined in a modular way in order to address a wide range of research questions on manipulation, robot-robot and human-robot interaction in agricultural and construction processes. The mobile robots can operate independently, but also cooperate using wireless communication. They can furthermore be coupled via mechanical structures, for example to form a gantry for working in row cultures. The mobile robots and robot arms are equipped with stereo camera and lidar sensors for perception of the work process and the environment. For localization, a high-precision satellite and inertial navigation system are linked. The robot arms are equipped with multi-finger grippers for the manipulation of irregular and deformable objects, which enable the measurement and control of contact forces and torques via tactile sensors. The mobile robots are equipped with a powerful computing system (PC with GPU) for computations on perception, localization, behavior planning and motion control. The research is largely carried out in interdisciplinary cooperation with groups from the Center for Commercial Vehicle Technology and the Construction of the Future Research Cluster at RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, resulting in synergetic use of the platform on site.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Modulare Plattform für Agrar- und Baurobotik
• Instrumentation Group: 2320 Greif- und Hebewerkzeuge, Verladeeinrichtungen
• Applicant Institution: Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Daniel Görges