CASC Showcase 2010 05 20

Comprehensive Automationfor Specialty Crops

Showcase

May 20th, 2010

Reconfigurable Mobility

Showcase

Comprehensive Automation for Specialty Crops 3

Recent Work

• Creating a useable interface

• New methods for row detection

• New methods for turning and row entry


Autonomous Vehicle User Interface

• Goal: Create an interface for the vehicle useable by growers and workers without engineer assistance

• Approach: Follow structured, formal human-computer interaction design methodologies– Interview workers to understand farm operations and equipment

– Define requirements that must be satisfied in the final interface product

– Follow a top-down design approach from requirements to functionalities

– Test with the workers on the APM


Existing Interface

• Here’s what the engineers use


Existing Interface

• It tells us a lot– Good for testing and debugging

• Hard to use even for us

• Impossible to use without lots of training

• Scary for those without computer backgrounds


Designing a New Interface

• Start from the beginning

• What does the vehicle have to do?

• Who will be using it?

• What is their current experience/expectation?


Designers’ Initial Assessment


Assessment (cont.)


Initial Interviews

• Designers interviewed owners and workers from four orchards


Potential Users

• Based on interviews, determined hierarchy of roles in an orchard


Design Ideas

Focus on things solvable within one semester

and with limited budget


First Draft

• Designs on paper presented to users– No prior instruction

• Lead users through scenario of vehicle use

• Find out what works


Task Selection, Farm View

Task icons

were

easy to

understand

But this zoom button

was mistaken for the vehicle


Vehicle Control

Vehicle’s

progress

is apparent

Users didn’t

even see

this

start/stop

button


First Interface Prototype

Start button now on vehicle

Travel to end of row,

or stop every n trees Offset left/right

of row center

Task selection in cornerHelp screen


First Interface Prototype

Zoom to block (shown on left)

Switch language

Speed control (only in end-of-row mode)


WiFi Communication with Interface

User Interface

Autonomous System

Localization

Navigation

InterfaceRelay

Commands

Commands

Going/Stopped

Going/Stopped

Location:

Which row/block


User Tests: First Round

• Interface run on laptop, controlling simulated vehicle

• Workers completely unfamiliar with interface– Presented with similar scenarios as before

– Told to use vehicle in a variety of tasks


First Round Results

• Computer-experienced users felt comfortable

• Others were afraid to give an incorrect command– Autonomous vehicle is an expensive piece of equipment

• Conclusion:– Users need some training, even if it is short


Final User Tests

• Interface stayed the same

• Went to Hollabaugh Orchards, Biglerville

• Four users operated APM– Owner/manager and three workers

– Two workers understood some English,one understood very little


Final User Tests

• All were able to control APM– All understood speed, offset, and go/stop mode

– Many mentioned potential applications for which they would like to use the APM

• One common complaint– Need for speed control in stop/go mode

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~casc/public/showcase_video1.wmv




Final Design


Help Screen


Conclusions

• This interface can make APMs easy to use by:– Reducing text on screen

– Presenting vehicle’s location clearly

– Abstracting orchard tasks to single button clicks


Conclusions

• In order to make performing tasks simpler for workers,additional setup is required by managers


Recommended Future Work


Recent Work

• Creating a useable interface

• New methods for row detection

• New methods for turning and row entry


Previous Row Detection

• Susceptible to spurious data

• Apply some filters to reduce the effect of bad detections

• But we want to have no bad detections


New Row Detection Work

• Using particle filter to track row over time

• Looks good so far

• Needs more testing


New Row Entry Work

• Make wider turns– Points vehicle at row sooner

– Easier to detect row

• Smoother turns in tight spaces

• Account for trailer when turning

• Use high accuracy localization (Area 1.2 work) to improve vehicle control


Back to the Orchards

• May 24: N. Blosi platform testing in Biglerville, PA

• June 7: APM testing in Biglerville

• July 19: APM testing in Washington


Acknowledgments

• Reed Soergel

• Joy Kline (Bear Mountain)

• Bruce Hollabaugh

Questions?

Augmented Harvesting

Showcase


Augmented Harvest

• DBR Conveyor Concepts update– Statement of work and contract finalized

– Work initiated

• New bin filler head looks good

• Laying out power unit with integrated exhaust silencing and intake filtering

• Ordering parts for hoses and vacuum chambers

• Bubble pack bin filler– Robin Pritz and Gwendolyn Barr completed first bruise testing

– Method shows promise, but new prototype is required for field testing


New bubble pack bin filler

Netting and pole backstop

for catching tossed apples

Bubble pack

shields frame

Bubble pack

over rubber

bands


Bubble pack bin filler close-up

Two rubber bands per wrapped sheet

Sheet is at an angle

Rubber bands and bubble pack

on lower layer are

perpendicular to upper layer


Configuration used in testing

New bubble pack

3 layers instead of 2

Padded poles

Refrigerators for

apples


Still Life with Apples

Marked bruises

Notes on test


http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~casc/public/showcase_video2.mpg




Results

Experiment Downgraded to Fancy (%)

Downgraded to Utility Grade (%)

Bruise Width(mm)

Direct Dispersed Box Throw 10% 15% 12.1

Dispersed Net Throw 11% 32% 26.0

Random Indirect Throw 10% 30% 25.2

Direct Box Throw 10% 0% 9.6

Total 10% 19% 18.2


Summary

• Bubble pack bin filler shows promise– Bruising is not bad given distance apples are tossed

• Upcoming improvements– More guiding by net

– Better distribution of bubble pack layers

– Lighter and better padded frame

– Mechanism for raising and lowering frame

• Work with DBR Conveyor Concepts is ramping up

Thank you.

CASC Showcase 2010 05 20

Education

Transcript of CASC Showcase 2010 05 20