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JRM Vol.38 No.2 pp. 398-403
(2026)

Paper:

Autonomous Agricultural Operations on Slope Terrain by Electric Vehicle Platform

Depeng Chen* ORCID Icon, Michihisa Iida* ORCID Icon, Masashi Ishii**, and Kazuyoshi Nonami***

*Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University
Kitashirakawa Oiwake-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan

**Yoka Tekko Co., Ltd.
200 Asakura, Yoka-cho, Yabu, Hyogo 667-0024, Japan

***Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University
4-101 Koyama-cho Minami, Tottori, Tottori 680-0945, Japan

Received:
September 19, 2025
Accepted:
February 10, 2026
Published:
April 20, 2026
Keywords:
autonomous travel, electric vehicle, weed mower, driving on slope, global navigation satellite system
Abstract

This study proposes an electric crawler-type robot for autonomous weeding operations on steep slopes. We designed a coverage weeding path for autonomous travel for robots using a global navigation satellite system. The machine was designed to adjust the height of both crawlers to address variations in slope. In addition, the path following the deviation error of the robot with different roll angles was measured. The proposed robot demonstrated optimal performance when the roll angle was set to 17.7°, resulting in an average lateral deviation error of 0.02 m and a weeding area coverage of 99.3%.

Autonomous electric agricultural robot

Autonomous electric agricultural robot

Cite this article as:
D. Chen, M. Iida, M. Ishii, and K. Nonami, “Autonomous Agricultural Operations on Slope Terrain by Electric Vehicle Platform,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.38 No.2, pp. 398-403, 2026.
Data files:
References
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Last updated on Apr. 19, 2026