RI Homepage Carnegie Mellon Homepage RI Homepage

The Robotics Institute

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

The Demeter System for Automated Harvesting

Thomas Pilarski, Michael Happold, Henning Pangels, Mark Ollis, Kerien Fitzpatrick, and Anthony (Tony) Stentz
Proceedings of the 8th International Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems, April, 1999.


Download
  • Adobe portable document format (pdf) (1MB)
Copyright notice: This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

Abstract
Automation of agricultural harvesting equipment in the near term appears both economically viable and technically feasible. This paper describes the Demeter system for automated harvesting. Demeter is a computer-controlled speedrowing machine, equipped with a pair of video cameras and a global positioning sensor for navigation. Demeter is capable of planning harvesting operations for an entire field, and then executing its plan by cutting crop rows, turning to cut successive rows, repositioning itself in the field, and detecting unexpected obstacles. In August of 1997, the Demeter system autonomously harvested 100 acres of alfalfa in a continuous run (excluding stops for refueling). During 1998, the Demeter system has harvested in excess of 120 acres of crop, cutting in both sudan and alfalfa fields.

Notes
Associated Center(s) / Consortia: National Robotics Engineering Center
Associated Project(s): Demeter and Row Crop Harvesting

Text Reference
Thomas Pilarski, Michael Happold, Henning Pangels, Mark Ollis, Kerien Fitzpatrick, and Anthony (Tony) Stentz, "The Demeter System for Automated Harvesting," Proceedings of the 8th International Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems, April, 1999.

BibTeX Reference
@inproceedings{Pilarski_1999_3240,
   author = "Thomas Pilarski and Michael Happold and Henning Pangels and Mark Ollis and Kerien Fitzpatrick and Anthony (Tony) Stentz",
   title = "The Demeter System for Automated Harvesting",
   booktitle = "Proceedings of the 8th International Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems",
   month = "April",
   year = "1999",
}

The Robotics Institute is part of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.
Contact Us | Update Instructions