Estimating Hay Bale Position with Stereo Vision Technique using an Omnidirectional Camera

In path planning of autonomous agriculture vehicles, detecting and identifying obstacles, and taking appropriate collision avoidance measures are critical for safe operation. The goal of this research was to obtain the hay bale distance and position to be used in real-time obstacle avoidance detection for autonomous robot tractors using stereo vision system. The vision system was an omnidirectional camera that have a wide field view and useful for specific applications such as meadow, open field, etc. The estimated hay bales distance from the camera showed that the calibration parameters should be further improved to enable autonomous navigation of a robot tractor in the meadow.