An important milestone reached: first autonomous navigation in orchards

Our Hunter 2.0 robot has managed to sequence several row following and U-turns in the orchards using only the four embedded cameras located on the front and side of the robot. The experiment took place in orchards from CEFEL in Montauban. This is a major step towards the ARPON project’s success, as this project is expected to provide a proof of concept of an autonomous navigation strategy relying only on embedded sensors (and not on GPS, see here). The following video briefly recalls the main aspects of the project and shows this important achievement. The next steps will consist of integrating a topological map, together with improving the perception and the guidance system to reduce undesired oscillations and take into account obstacles in the robot’s surroundings.