Abstract:
Abstract: Agricultural implements tilt angle measurement is one of the key technologies to achieve agricultural implements and equipment precision operations. For example, the precision navigation control and the leveling control of agricultural implements are all dependent on the accurate measurement of tilt angle. What’s more, agricultural implements of tilt angle are one of the key parameters of agricultural mechanics modeling and agricultural implements safety warning learning. In order to further improve the quality of agricultural implements operation, we developed a new agricultural implement tilt angle measurement system in this paper and verified by tests on triaxial turntable platform and field. Modern micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies provide the moderate-cost and miniaturized solutions for the development of attitude reference system. Using highly-integrated inertial measurement units (IMUs) ADIS16445 provided by ADI company and micro ARM processor STM32F446 provided by ST company, we built the hardware platform. ADIS16445 ISensor® includes tri-axial gyroscopes and tri-axial accelerometers, the raw sensors data was sampled by STM32F446RC processor through SPI interface. The attitude calculation was carried out based on the Euler angle algorithm. The Kalman filter model with four state vectors and two observations was established to fuse the accelerometer and gyroscope information to achieve the accurate measurement of the tilt angle of agricultural implements. Considering the zero bias and drift characteristics of the gyroscope and the motion characteristics of the MEMS micro sensor, adaptive error covariance matrix Q and R rules were established to achieve precise tilt angle measurement of agricultural implements under different working conditions. Tests were conducted on SGT320E triaxial turntable platform and ZP9500 high level sprayer provided by LOVOL company dual in the field with the assistance of antenna positioning and attitude module BD982 provided by Trimble company. The SGT320E triaxial turntable platform was the standard equipment for testing the angular motion parameters and inertial systems. By setting the triaxial motion parameters to simulate a variety of motion states, it had speed, position and sine swing modes on all triaxial with a rate resolution of 0.0001°/s. In this paper, we used six position accelerometer calibration method and gyroscope error model to verify the performance of accelerometers and gyroscopes. Three-axis multi-function turntable test results showed that ADIS16445 built-in gyroscopes’ and accelerometers’ zero bias were under 0.15°/s and 0.075 mg, qualified to meet the system design hardware requirements. Kalman fusion algorithm were more accuracy and effective compare to simple integral by gyroscope and can solve the problem of zero bias and drift characteristics of the gyroscope with tilt static measurement error accuracy was 0.15°, typical dynamic measurement accuracy was 0.3°, maximum measurement error was less than 0.5°. The BD982 supports high precision positioning, attitude and heading output with high stability and fast dynamic response, which is widely used in construction implements, automobiles, agricultural implements and other fields, making it to be the leader of the industry. In this paper, the baseline length was 1.4 m with the measurement accuracy of 0.1°. Test results from high level sprayer showed that the average error of the attitude inclination was less than 0.55°, maximum measurement error was less than 0.91°, which satisfied the precise operation requirement of the agricultural equipment. Test results also verified that self-adaptive Kalman filter algorithm was more accuracy and stable than normal Kalman filter algorithm, which made the system development by this paper have more applicability. The agricultural implements tilt angle measurement system developed in this paper not only can reducing costs but also can improving the quality of agricultural implements operations.