Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG)

Plant Sciences (IBG-2)

FieldSnake

Automated driving, diesel-powered bridge for accurate positioning of field phenotyping sensors.

FieldSnake is an autonomous positioning system for open fields using GPS antennas upgraded with RTK to position the sensor platform less than 2cm.

The FieldSnake is the predecessor of the FieldWeasel and it is quite similar regarding main structure. It consists of two driving units, a sensor platform, and a bridge with a movable sensor platform. It has a weight of about 6000 kg and a total width of 21m. This width fits the agricultural lane distances of the local farmers at our research site - Campus Klein-Altendorf (50.628122, 6.98885). Mainly we use the machine there, which makes up for the immobility. It is maneuverable due to two driving units which have 2 turnable chain drives each.

The diesel engine provides 12+ hours of operation in the field per fuel tank filling. Individual functions are hydraulic control of the height of the bridge (up to 3 m from the soil), movement of the sensor platform along the bridge, fine-tuning of sensor platform height from the canopy (up to 1m), and leveling.

Sensors for quantifying structural (e.g.: PlantEye) and photosynthetic (e.g.: LIFT, HyScreen) plant characteristics, environmental sensors, cameras and many more can be mounted. The platform offers a surface of 1.5m x 1.5m with a mounting weight of up to 150 kg. attachment of several sensors at the same time and simultaneous measurements are possible.

The platform has power and ethernet connections for the sensors and other devices and the range covered by the sensor platform is roughly 18 m between the driving units.

After lifting the machine with the attached support arms the tracks can be set to 0° or 90° degrees position so it can drive alongside the agricultural lanes as well as parallel to them e.g. for lane switching

In automatic mode, the system moves the sensors to the desired GPS position where the sensor measurement is triggered. After measurement completion, the platform automatically moves to the next desired measuring point.

Measurement sequences can easily be programmed via a GUI operated by the user so scientists gain considerable time which they would have to spend on data collection. Instead, the researchers can use the time to validate the measured data and if measurement errors occur they will be able to act immediately because of easy operation.

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