Research Progress and Prospects of Key Navigation Technologies for Facility Agricultural Robots

With the rapid development of robotics technology and the persistently rise of labor costs, the application of robots in facility agriculture is becoming increasingly widespread. These robots can enhance operational efficiency, reduce labor costs, and minimize human errors. However, the complexity and diversity of facility environments, including varying crop layouts and lighting conditions, impose higher demands on robot navigation. Therefore, achieving stable, accurate, and rapid navigation for robots has become a key issue. Advanced sensor technologies and algorithms have been proposed to enhance robots’ adaptability and decision-making capabilities in dynamic environments. This not only elevates the automation level of agricultural production but also contributes to more intelligent agricultural management.

This paper reviews the key technologies of automatic navigation for facility agricultural robots. It details beacon localization, inertial positioning, simultaneous localization and mapping（SLAM）techniques, and sensor fusion methods used in autonomous localization and mapping. Depending on the type of sensors employed, SLAM technology could be subdivided into vision-based, laser-based and fusion systems. Fusion localization is further categorized into data-level, feature-level, and decision-level based on the types and stages of the fused information. The application of SLAM technology and fusion localization in facility agriculture has been increasingly common. Global path planning plays a crucial role in enhancing the operational efficiency and safety of facility aricultural robots. This paper discusses global path planning, classifying it into point-to-point local path planning and global traversal path planning. Furthermore, based on the number of optimization objectives, it was divided into single-objective path planning and multiobjective path planning. In regard to automatic obstacle avoidance technology for robots, the paper discusses sevelral commonly used obstacle avoidance control algorithms commonly used in facility agriculture, including artificial potential field, dynamic window approach and deep learning method. Among them, deep learning methods are often employed for perception and decision-making in obstacle avoidance scenarios.

Currently, the challenges for facility agricultural robot navigation include complex scenarios with significant occlusions, cost constraints, low operational efficiency and the lack of standardized platforms and public datasets. These issues not only affect the practical application effectiveness of robots but also constrain the further advancement of the industry. To address these challenges, future research can focus on developing multi-sensor fusion technologies, applying and optimizing advanced algorithms, investigating and implementing multi-robot collaborative operations and establishing standardized and shared data platforms.