Application of the LIDAR technology for obstacle detection during the operation of agricultural vehicles

Abstract

The connectivity method yielded the lowest detection rate with only 18% of the results showing peak values at the known object location. The discontinuity method, when analysing the relative mean and standard deviation of the discontinuities to the known object location, yielded converging results for 20.6% of the tests. The density and average height method were shown to have the greatest success rates of 49.4% and 72.4% respectively. The density method had the greatest noise. There was very little success in detecting the shorter test object. 2. Both the average height and density method cell values decreased with an increase in vehicle operating speed. The discontinuity method had greater success at higher speeds. A total of 26.9% of high-speed tests yielded good results whereas only 8.33% for the slower travel speed. 3. The average height method yielded the best results with the hay, oats, and soybeans crops with the wheat crop providing the lowest cell values. Using the density method the highest cell values were obtained from the hay crops and the lowest from the wheat. The discontinuity method experienced consistently low average distance results with the wheat crop.