Design of the Mobile Robot Agri.q

In this paper, an innovative UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle), named Agri.q, is presented. The rover is specifically designed for precision agriculture applications and is able to work in unstructured environment on irregular soil, cooperating with drones, if necessary. It is equipped with specific tools and sensors to per-form specific tasks, i.e. mapping the field, monitoring the crops and collecting soil and leaf samples. In addition, it is provided with a two degrees of freedom landing platform able to self-orient to ensure a safe drone docking or even to maximize the sunrays collection during the auto-charging phase. In this way, the rover autonomy and sustainability are increased. The functional design of the rover and the design of its actuation system are reported herein; furthermore, the first prototype is described and some preliminary results obtained during experimental tests are discussed.