{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/104729"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/104729","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"ARDEE: A general agricultural robotic development and evaluation environment","abstract":"When evaluating any algorithm, it is essential that the data used for evaluation be collected from the target operating environment, as well as conditions, in order to get an accurate representation of the algorithm's performance in that environment. This is especially important when extrinsic sensor measurements are used for developing and evaluating autonomous control and perception algorithms intended for agricultural applications. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that can considerably hinder the development process, most notably the 7-8 months in which most crops are not in season. The work presented in this thesis allows the year-round development and evaluation for a wide variety of autonomous control and perception algorithms for agricultural field robotic applications, using a set of developed simulation tools in combination with an open-source simulation platform, Gazebo. The custom set of tools was designed such that any number of user-specific agricultural environments can be simulated, and the sensor/robot configuration can be easily customized, being useful for a wide range of agricultural research interests. The fundamental contributions of this work are the following: (1) a collection of sufficiently accurate simulated crop models for three different crop species (corn, sorghum, and tobacco), (2) user-friendly tools for generating a user-customizable agricultural field environment, (3) a collection of simulated, commonly-used, sensors that can be attached to any simulated robot platform, (4) a simulated model of an ultra-compact robot platform, and (5) a set of socket-based, or UDP, tools used for testing algorithm performance on-board target hardware and with the simulated sensors and field. Finally, a few core autonomous control and perception algorithms, which reflect the range of field robot research areas that could be used, are executed on-board an ultra-lightweight ground robot platform, and the performance is evaluated and compared in both a real-world and a simulated, agricultural environment.","abstract_html":"When evaluating any algorithm, it is essential that the data used for evaluation be collected from the target operating environment, as well as conditions, in order to get an accurate representation of the algorithm's performance in that environment. This is especially important when extrinsic sensor measurements are used for developing and evaluating autonomous control and perception algorithms intended for agricultural applications. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that can considerably hinder the development process, most notably the 7-8 months in which most crops are not in season. The work presented in this thesis allows the year-round development and evaluation for a wide variety of autonomous control and perception algorithms for agricultural field robotic applications, using a set of developed simulation tools in combination with an open-source simulation platform, Gazebo. The custom set of tools was designed such that any number of user-specific agricultural environments can be simulated, and the sensor/robot configuration can be easily customized, being useful for a wide range of agricultural research interests. The fundamental contributions of this work are the following: (1) a collection of sufficiently accurate simulated crop models for three different crop species (corn, sorghum, and tobacco), (2) user-friendly tools for generating a user-customizable agricultural field environment, (3) a collection of simulated, commonly-used, sensors that can be attached to any simulated robot platform, (4) a simulated model of an ultra-compact robot platform, and (5) a set of socket-based, or UDP, tools used for testing algorithm performance on-board target hardware and with the simulated sensors and field. Finally, a few core autonomous control and perception algorithms, which reflect the range of field robot research areas that could be used, are executed on-board an ultra-lightweight ground robot platform, and the performance is evaluated and compared in both a real-world and a simulated, agricultural environment.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Young, Hunter"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Agricultural & Biological Engr","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Chowdhary, Girish","Grift, Tony E.","Rodriguez, Luis F."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-08-23T19:51:21Z","date_published":"2019-08-23T19:51:21Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:42Z","subjects":["field robotics","development environment","hardware-in-the-loop","ROS","Gazebo","3D simulation"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2019 Hunter Young"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104729","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Chowdhary, Girish","Grift, Tony E.","Rodriguez, Luis F."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Young, Hunter"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2019-08-23T19:51:21Z","2019-01-14","2019-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Agricultural & Biological Engr"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["field robotics","development environment","hardware-in-the-loop","ROS","Gazebo","3D simulation"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2019 Hunter Young"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104729"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["When evaluating any algorithm, it is essential that the data used for evaluation be collected from the target operating environment, as well as conditions, in order to get an accurate representation of the algorithm's performance in that environment. This is especially important when extrinsic sensor measurements are used for developing and evaluating autonomous control and perception algorithms intended for agricultural applications. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that can considerably hinder the development process, most notably the 7-8 months in which most crops are not in season. The work presented in this thesis allows the year-round development and evaluation for a wide variety of autonomous control and perception algorithms for agricultural field robotic applications, using a set of developed simulation tools in combination with an open-source simulation platform, Gazebo. The custom set of tools was designed such that any number of user-specific agricultural environments can be simulated, and the sensor/robot configuration can be easily customized, being useful for a wide range of agricultural research interests. The fundamental contributions of this work are the following: (1) a collection of sufficiently accurate simulated crop models for three different crop species (corn, sorghum, and tobacco), (2) user-friendly tools for generating a user-customizable agricultural field environment, (3) a collection of simulated, commonly-used, sensors that can be attached to any simulated robot platform, (4) a simulated model of an ultra-compact robot platform, and (5) a set of socket-based, or UDP, tools used for testing algorithm performance on-board target hardware and with the simulated sensors and field. Finally, a few core autonomous control and perception algorithms, which reflect the range of field robot research areas that could be used, are executed on-board an ultra-lightweight ground robot platform, and the performance is evaluated and compared in both a real-world and a simulated, agricultural environment.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2019-08-22 without embargo terms","The student, Hunter Young, accepted the attached license on 2018-12-12 at 19:51.","The student, Hunter Young, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2018-12-12 at 20:26.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2019-01-14 at 10:40.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13311 on 2019-08-22 at 14:38:35","Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T19:51:21Z (GMT). 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This is especially important when extrinsic sensor measurements are used for developing and evaluating autonomous control and perception algorithms intended for agricultural applications. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles that can considerably hinder the development process, most notably the 7-8 months in which most crops are not in season. The work presented in this thesis allows the year-round development and evaluation for a wide variety of autonomous control and perception algorithms for agricultural field robotic applications, using a set of developed simulation tools in combination with an open-source simulation platform, Gazebo. The custom set of tools was designed such that any number of user-specific agricultural environments can be simulated, and the sensor/robot configuration can be easily customized, being useful for a wide range of agricultural research interests. The fundamental contributions of this work are the following: (1) a collection of sufficiently accurate simulated crop models for three different crop species (corn, sorghum, and tobacco), (2) user-friendly tools for generating a user-customizable agricultural field environment, (3) a collection of simulated, commonly-used, sensors that can be attached to any simulated robot platform, (4) a simulated model of an ultra-compact robot platform, and (5) a set of socket-based, or UDP, tools used for testing algorithm performance on-board target hardware and with the simulated sensors and field. Finally, a few core autonomous control and perception algorithms, which reflect the range of field robot research areas that could be used, are executed on-board an ultra-lightweight ground robot platform, and the performance is evaluated and compared in both a real-world and a simulated, agricultural environment.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2019-08-22 without embargo terms","The student, Hunter Young, accepted the attached license on 2018-12-12 at 19:51.","The student, Hunter Young, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2018-12-12 at 20:26.","This Thesis was approved for publication on 2019-01-14 at 10:40.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13311 on 2019-08-22 at 14:38:35","Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-23T19:51:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 YOUNG-THESIS-2019.pdf: 36733152 bytes, checksum: 9e5642343115177e7bd1e39e7350b1bb (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4209 bytes, checksum: 9ecaea51924f7fc8bdeee826fd6dc373 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2019-01-14"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/104729"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2019 Hunter Young"],"dc:subject":["field robotics","development environment","hardware-in-the-loop","ROS","Gazebo","3D simulation"],"dc:title":["ARDEE: A general agricultural robotic development and evaluation environment"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Agricultural & Biological Engr"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:42Z"}