Investigation of the inclination effects on motion planning and path following control of the autonomous agricultural robots

Robotics is a branch that includes the disciplines of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering and space science. There has been very important developments in the recent years. These developments are proportional to the number of robots used and the studies on robotics. Robots are classified based on the field that they are used in. The use of mobile robots and autonomous vehicles in this classification has increased rapidly in the agriculture industry. The main reason for the increase is to increase the productivity of agricultural production and decrease the labour force. The robots used in agricultural applications are used for many processes such as seed sowing from plant inoculation, separation of weeds from harvesting process and collection of fruits. Thanks to the size, wheel structure and mobile systems that can be monitored in autonomous vehicles used in agricultural applications, their mobility in land environments is fast compared to large agricultural machines. However, the slip of the wheels of autonomous vehicles as a result of contact with a rugged terrain and an incline surface is an important element of restricting the movement and control. In order to eliminate these elements, to increase the performance capability of autonomous vehicles and to provide the desired sensitivity, comprehensive studies are carried out by the researchers of our day. In this thesis work, it is aimed to investigate the movement of a four-wheeled mobile robot vehicle which is intended for agricultural purposes and to examine this movement in a reference orbit. The robot's motion has been examined on both the straight and inclined surfaces. In order to make the movement planning of the mobile robot a car movement model which is called "car-like robot" in literature is taken as reference. The mathematical background of the reference model is fictionalized in MATLAB programming environment using both editorial environment and Simulink. A reference trajectory and a simulation tool were created in the MATLAB programming environment with the fiction. With the simulation results examined the factors affecting the movement of the mobile robot during the reference trajectory tracking of the mobile robot were discussed. In order to observe the simulation results on a real mobile robot a four-wheeled mobile robot designed and manufactured in the SolidWorks. The produced mobile robot has mechanical, software and electrical connections with the necessary equipment. Fictioned the mobil robot has been tested on straight and inclined surfaces. With the feedback sensor data added on the robot vehicle movement is examined. In practice, studies on mobile robot were compared with simulation results.