RESEARCH ON CURVED PATH-TRACKING CONTROLLER OF RICE TRANSPLANTER BASED ON H-INFINITY STATE FEEDBACK CONTROL

The accuracy of curved path-tracking for headland turning of transplanters is crucial to maintaining the row spacing precision required for rice planting. To address this issue, a method based on H-infinity state feedback control is proposed. In this method, the requirement of robustness is transformed into linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) to optimize the gain coefficients of the control law. The simulation test show that this method outperforms the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) when facing uncertain parameters (longitudinal speed and cornering stiffness) and path curvature disturbance. In addition, the field test results show that when the transplanter tracks a 1/4 circular arc path with a radius of 2 meters, the mean value of the absolute lateral error and the absolute heading angle error using this controller are 0.029 m and 3.69°, respectively. The maximum absolute lateral error is 0.072 m, and 64% of the absolute lateral error are less than 0.04 m, meeting practical requirements. Compared with the LQR controller with feed forward control, the mean value of the absolute lateral error is reduced by 36%. This method meets the accuracy and robustness requirements for unmanned rice transplanter turning at the headland.