Autonomy has become the new goal of off-road machine control. Collaboration between NovAtel and AutonomouStuff, both part of Hexagon, has produced sensing and positioning kits to accelerate autonomous development for off-road applications.
Combining decades of expertise in GNSS positioning, autonomy and safety-critical applications, these positioning and sensing kits provide developers with technology bringing assured positioning to off-road autonomy.
The Autonomous Tractor
The autonomous tractor features object detection and classification, simultaneous relative localization and mapping, absolute positioning through GNSS technology, and localization sensor fusing. The tractor incorporates safety-critical learnings with situational and environmental awareness, and manual remote control when needed.
The positioning and sensing kits that enable the tractor to function include products like the SMART7 antenna and its autonomous system capability through the NovAtel OEM7 driver powered by Robot Operating System (ROS). Featuring TerraStar PPP corrections, ALIGN heading and relative positioning firmware, and SPAN GNSS+INS technology, these kits integrate seamlessly into existing development processes.
“These positioning and sensing kits provide developers with technology bringing assured positioning to autonomy in agriculture,” explained Michael Martinez, agriculture segment manager at Hexagon | NovAtel. “Robotic-machinery manufacturers or those experienced in autonomy may be unfamiliar with the unique challenges facing agriculture applications. Conversely, those experienced with agriculture may not have the expertise to integrate positioning and sensing products within autonomous solutions. We can help in both cases through these positioning and sensor kits, as demonstrated by our autonomous tractor.”
“We’re excited to use this tractor as a platform to validate the human identification, obstacle detection and enhanced environmental awareness that our sensing kits add to our assured positioning solutions in agriculture,” said John Buszek, VP of products and services at Hexagon | AutonomouStuff. “The sensing and positioning technologies we’ve integrated on this demonstration platform showcase the Smart Autonomous Mobility portfolio, which enables and accelerates the development of autonomy in agriculture applications from prototyping to production.”
View a virtual tour of our autonomous tractor to see how a NovAtel autonomous solution can meet off-road needs.
