Low-cost Laser-based Localization System for Agricultural Machines

In this paper a low cost distance localization system for agricultural applications has been described. Such a system could assist farmers during the leveling process by providing them an altimetric map which can be used to dermine the best soil movement strategy. The discussed solution does not require any sort of modification to the commercial laser heads that are already commonly employed by the farmers for soil leveling. The proposed system is composed of a distance meter and of a reference laser receiver. The first component represents the most critical part of the system thus a complete prototype has been designed and tested, while the reference receiver is currently being designed. The experimental results show that the distance can be measured up to about 250 m with a maximum deviation of about 2 m. Even though these raw results seem still higher than the target accuracy of 1 m, thanks to the rather high rate of measurements the system provides, the initial requirement could still be reached by employing an averaging processes which is under development