Abstract:Aiming at the problem that GPS, lidar, vision and other positioning and navigation methods for robot sometimes do not work well or even fail in the complex environment of banana plantation, a positioning and navigation method for robot based on laser and ultrasonic sensors at banana plantation was proposed. However, when there were small shrubs and other obstacles, or at rugged tractor road in the complex environment of banana plantation, it was the premise and the key for positioning and navigation to accurately measure the shortest distance between the robot and banana tree. Therefore, a distance measurement method for banana tree using laser and ultrasonic sensors based on fitting and filtering techniques was proposed. Firstly, the laser and ultrasonic sensors simultaneously measured the distance between the robot and banana tree at each sampling time and reciprocally checked the distance data ranged by laser and ultrasonic sensor in order to generate a set of distance data for the target banana tree;after that, the set of distance data was fitted using a quadratic polynomial by the least squares method;and then the distance data was filtered out with larger error from the set of distance data based on the fitted quadratic polynomial and the suitable threshold;and finally, the shortest distance from the robot to banana tree was got by averaging the three minimum distance data at the filtered set of distance data. The experimental results showed that the ranging method proposed had an maximum ranging error rate of 1.0% for banana tree in ideal environment, and the maximum ranging error rate was 2.0%, which corresponding maximum ranging error was 1.0cm, in an environment with small shrubs and other obstacles or rugged road, even in outside natural environment. Therefore, the stability of the ranging method proposed was good, which can provide accurate distance data for the robot to realize positioning and navigation in the banana plantation.