John Deere vehicles operate in a variety of environments and ground conditions and precisely following a path can be more challenging when on hillsides or in soft conditions. Specifically, problems arise when a machine can’t steer properly and loses traction (think of a tractor driving along the side of a steep hill and turning the wheels to keep moving straight). This crabbing situation can happen in flat conditions as well as when the soil is soft or wet or if there is a heavy draft load. The result is poor performance as this condition is not observable via standard GPS/IMU measurements. However, with multiple sensors providing vehicle metrics, John Deere engineers believe there are ways to infer the angle of crabbing occurring in real-time. This knowledge could be fed into John Deere steering systems to over-correct and hold paths more precisely.  Our team is to design an algorithm that could be employed across multiple John Deere vehicle forms (tractors, sprayers, combines) to determine if said vehicle is crabbing or not.

Team Members

Arya Amin
Axel Barrera
Colby Chan
Johnnytam Do 
Hector Gonzalez
Mark Liao