Design of a Wireless and Digital-Based System for Obstacle Detection of Fixed and Moving Obstacles in Agriculture

Obstacle detection in mechanised agricultural activities is a key feature in safety management systems which prevents accidents involving workers on foot. Presence of obstacles in blind spot areas utterly represent a major issue for tractor drivers. This paper illustrates the model of a safety management system that aims to handle obstacles by using depth cameras and LIDARs to detect the obstacles and estimate their distances, risk maps that provide information obtained by Real Time Kinematics (RTK) georeferencing of fixed obstacles such as trees or buildings, assisted by an additional system based on Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) wireless communication devices for real-time localization of workers on foot and notifications through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices. The model is part of a project called SIRTRAck and also provides an assessment of a tractor’s blind spots obtained by both field tests and simulations. The preliminary part of research activities showed that prototyping a low-cost aftermarket system for obstacle detection is possible by adapting different data acquisition methods for safety purposes and by making use of the information accordingly. Further steps of the project include a prototyping phase of a demo kit based on the model.