Development of automatic driving system for a paddy field weeding robot considering disturbance

The herbicide-free weeding method used in this study is to stir the paddy field by dragging the chain attached to the rear of the weeding robot, float the seeds of weeds, and make the paddy field turbid to prevent the growth of weeds. Then, in order to automate the weeding work, we built an automatic driving system. The automatic driving system is a position control system that follows a predetermined work path based on data from GNSS sensors. The driving unit of the robot attaches propellers to the propulsive and steering motors, and outputs thrust by rotating the propellers. However, during the automatic driving, it may not follow the work path due to wind and disturbance in the experimental environment. In this study, we introduce a disturbance observer to a feedback control system. The validity of the disturbance observer is verified by simulations with considering disturbance.