A Control Method of Driving a Paddy Vehicle Straight Ahead for Automatic Operation

A method for automatically driving paddy vehicles, such as rice transplanters, etc., straight ahead in a paddy field was investigated . The direction of such vehicles must be precisely controlled to do the operations as straight. However, the alignment of the from wheels becomes distorted due to the unevenness of the ground, preventing the vehicle form going straight. If the proper alignment of the front wheels is maintained , the vehicle can be driven straight ahead greater precision. To investigate the influence of the ground uneveness, the behavior of a paddy vehicle running over an obstacle was quantified. The left wheel ran over an obstacle on a flat concrete road surfaced. When the steering wheel was free, the front wheels were forced toward the left when vehicle went up the obstacle and toward the right when the vehicle went down it. The torsion of the wheel when the vehicle went down the obstacle was larger than that when it went up ,so it turned right 5 degrees. Sinc hydraulic control steering decreased the steering angle , it turned right 3 degrees. These results suggest that a vehicle can be driven straight ahead with high precision when the steering angle is changed in response to the direction and inclination of the vehicle . Such results were obtained in a paddy field tests.