2018 the International Conference of Intelligent Robotic and Control Engineering

The Exploration of the Trajectory Planning of Plant Protection Robot for Small
Planting Crops in Western Mountainous Areas

Ma Jiayi Sun Bugong

Gansu Agricultural University Gansu Agricultural University
The International Conference on Intelligent Robotics The International Conference on Intelligent Robotics
and Control Engineering and Control Engineering
Lanzhou, China Lanzhou, China
e-mail: 490779024@qq.com e-mail: 781525954@qq.com

Abstract—Based on the arrangement of crops in crop planting

in western China and the characteristics of single small area
planting, the working trajectory planning method for plant
protection robot in arid areas in western China is discussed.
First of all, the paper analyzes the distribution patterns of west
mountain characteristic planting crops; The motion path of the
robot is determined according to the arrangement form of crop
planting, and the working path of spray robot is simplified for
the postman. Finally, the ant colony algorithm was used to
solve the optimal spraying path, which provided some
technical support for the application and technical promotion
of agricultural robot in western hilly region.

Keywords-western; trajectory; plan; crops; plant protection

robot

Figure 1. The hills are planted with crops.

I. PREFACE
With the continuous development of agricultural
technology, the mechanization of agricultural planting has II. TWO BASIC PLANTING MODES OF SMALL-AREA
been basically realized in the alpine areas of western China. CROPS
As shown in Fig. 1, agricultural machinery use in western Due to the geographical nature, crop planting in the
China tends to be small, because crop cultivation in western western region is mostly in the form of small pieces of
China is mainly scattered in small areas. However, there are continuous cropping, as shown in Fig. 2.
many factors that are not conducive to safety when manually
operated agricultural equipment works in hilly areas.
Especially when it is necessary to spray pesticide for the
prevention and control of crop diseases and insect pests, it
will take more labor and time to transport agricultural
equipment to the field or carry spraying equipment into the
field manually. In addition, artificial spraying has obvious
randomness, which often leads to waste of pesticide,
excessive spraying of pesticide causes environmental
pollution, and people directly participate in long-term
operations. If the protection is not enough, inhaling more
pesticides may cause pesticide poisoning and seriously
damage the health of the body.
Therefore, it is of great significance to study and use the
small agricultural plant protection robot in western hilly area.
In view of the characteristics of small area planting of crops
in western regions, this paper proposes the application of Figure 2. Western crops were planted in succession.
small agricultural plant protection robot to realize
agricultural spraying work. In order to obtain the best Each small piece is mainly rectangular or approximately
spraying effect, a method to solve the trajectory planning of rectangular. According to the investigation, the arrangement
plant protection robot is proposed. method of crops planted in this small area is shown in Fig.

978-1-5386-7416-1/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 42

3,in which the graph is based on a long side arrangement of
planting form (horizontal configuration), the graph is based
on the short side arrangement of planting form b
(longitudinal configuration).
a. horizontal configuration
b. longitudinal configuration
Figure 3.Crop planting arrangement drawing.
The basic difference of crop arrangement in Fig. 3 is that
the number of turning points in the working trajectory of the
robot is different. It is generally believed that the lower the
number of turning points in the working trajectory of the
robot, the higher the working efficiency.
The practice shows that in order to improve the stability
of the robot, reduce the shock vibration and work noise,
improve the accuracy of the robot, and extend the service life
of the robot, a well-designed trajectory planning algorithm is
needed. The first traditional trajectory planning algorithm is
the trapezoidal velocity curve algorithm, which is the
simplest planning algorithm. In the path planning of the
robot, the velocity change is divided into three stages [9]：
The first stage: the starting value of the velocity v of the
motion is 0 and increases to a constant value at a certain rate.
The second stage: the running speed of this stage is
constant, and the speed curve is shown as a horizontal line.
The third stage: speed from the constant value to zero,
the speed curve of a downward sloping straight line.
Therefore, the speed curve shape of the trapezoid velocity
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curve algorithm is shown in Fig. 4. The algorithm is simple
and easy to implement, which is suitable for simple robot
trajectory planning. However, this kind of algorithm has a
great disadvantage in the case of strict requirement of
acceleration and high requirement of stability.
Figure 4. The ladder speed curve algorithm diagram
The second trajectory planning algorithm is the combined
polynomial velocity curve algorithm. The characteristics of
the algorithm is a common combination into a period of
polynomial function more speed curve of robot trajectory
planning implementation, which will be two quadratic
polynomial combination of s type curve is a typical feature
of the algorithm, can better solve problems of acceleration
mutation, planning result can achieve relatively satisfactory
degree.
The third is the higher order polynomial speed curve
algorithm. In the process of the algorithm, to ensure the
continuity of the acceleration curve, the algorithm USES a
higher order polynomial simulation of the speed curve, and
the main character of the algorithm is to have a high degree
of accuracy in the movement of the robot, and the algorithm
brings in the complexity and the added conditions of the
calculation.
For this reason, the work trajectory planning problem of
plant protection robot is simplified as follows: crop
arrangement is mainly in the mode of a graph, so as to
reduce the number of turning points of the robot. The
problem of track connection between regional plantings can
be simplified as postman problem [1].
III. THE SIMULATION ANALYSIS
In order to improve the efficiency of plant protection
robot, the method of solving the shortest working trajectory
of plant protection robot is adopted here, and ant colony
algorithm [1-8] is selected to solve the problem, as shown in
Fig. 5.
The nature of ant colony algorithm is a parallel
algorithm [9-15].The search process of each ant is
independent from each other in the process of performing the
calculation, and communication is realized between the ants
through pheromones. It can be seen that ant colony algorithm
can be regarded as a distributed multi-agent system.
 In the process of calculation, the algorithm starts to
conduct independent solution search at the same time in
multiple points of the problem space, which strengthens the
reliability of the algorithm and makes the algorithm have
strong global search ability. Therefore, it has been used and
studied by many scholars.
In the process of robot trajectory planning, the
parameters to be considered in general are as follows: time,
distance, speed, addition and subtraction speed and impact
vibration. The third parameter can be obtained by knowing
any two parameters: time, distance and speed. The practice
shows that the combination of path and time is superior to
time segmentation and displacement segmentation.
In general, the path and time of evaluation parameters
are defined as follows [9]：
(1) Distance refers to the fact that when the parameter
coordinates of the first and last two points are known, the
shorter the planned distance is, the shorter the actual
movement path of the corresponding robot will be. Therefore,
when evaluating algorithms, which algorithm has the
shortest path is the basis of evaluation.
(2) Time refers to the sum of time for the robot to
complete the known trajectory in the known trajectory
planning. The shorter the planning time, the shorter the time
for the robot to reach the designated point, and the higher the
efficiency of the robot to complete the task. Therefore, it is
necessary to evaluate which algorithm has the shortest
planning time for the same planning track.
(3) The speed of addition and subtraction refers to that
in the known trajectory planning, the better the continuity of
the set speed change, the more stable the robot will walk, and
the smaller the rigid impact. Therefore, the continuity of
velocity change rate of which algorithm is the best indicator
to evaluate the algorithm, that is, the continuity of the
acceleration curve.
(4) Impact vibration refers to that in the known
trajectory planning, the better the set continuity of
acceleration change, the smaller the flexible impact of the
robot. Therefore, for the same segment trajectory planning,
the continuity of acceleration rate of which algorithm is the
best indicator to evaluate the algorithm, that is, the continuity
of jump curve.
Because of the small scale of farming in the hills and
the main form of farming, it is necessary to solve the
problem of the sequence and the connection between the
small piece of the growing area, and the ant colony algorithm
can do a good job of solving the problem of the sequence
and the way of connecting to the path, so the algorithm is
using the algorithm to work out the optimal work path of the
robot [16-19].
The basic algorithm idea is as follows [4].
In the first step, several ants are randomly placed at
different starting points;
The second step sets the initial time to 0 and determines
the pheromone value on each motion path;
The third step is to select the path motion of any ant x
according to the information element quantity;
44
In the fourth step, ant x USES tabu table to record all the
current positions in the process of movement, so as to
improve the calculation efficiency.
As the understanding and searching of solution space
becomes regular, it gradually approaches and finally reaches
the global optimal solution.
Figure 5. Trajectory of cloud.
The initial population size was 100, pheromone volatility
factor was 0.5, the number of iterations was 100, pheromone
intensity factor was 1, departure intensity factor was 5,
pheromone intensity factor was 1, pheromone volatility
coefficient was 0.5, initial coordinates (86mm,56.9mm), and
termination coordinates (78.9mm,66mm). The optimal
trajectory length is 711.1691mm.
IV. CONCLUSION
To simplify the trajectory of the link between the small
plots of the western hill farm and the small piece of the field
to the postman problem, using the ant colony algorithm to
solve the problem of the trajectory planning of the arbor
robot technology to the western regions of the western region,
it provides a certain technical reference to the applications of
the agricultural robots in the agricultural area and the
technology of the implantation robot.
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