A Co-Simulation Virtual Reality Machinery Simulator for Advanced Precision Agriculture Applications

Maurizio Cutini (), Carlo Bisaglia, Massimo Brambilla, Andrea Bragaglio, Federico Pallottino, Alberto Assirelli, Elio Romano, Alessandro Montaghi, Elisabetta Leo, Marco Pezzola, Claudio Maroni and Paolo Menesatti
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Maurizio Cutini: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via Milano 43, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Carlo Bisaglia: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via Milano 43, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Massimo Brambilla: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via Milano 43, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Andrea Bragaglio: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via Milano 43, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Federico Pallottino: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via della Pascolare 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy
Alberto Assirelli: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via della Pascolare 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy
Elio Romano: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via Milano 43, 24047 Treviglio, Italy
Alessandro Montaghi: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via G. Venezian 26, 20133 Milan, Italy
Elisabetta Leo: Soluzioni Ingegneria, Via Lorenzo Balicco 113, 23900 Lecco, Italy
Marco Pezzola: Soluzioni Ingegneria, Via Lorenzo Balicco 113, 23900 Lecco, Italy
Claudio Maroni: Soluzioni Ingegneria, Via Lorenzo Balicco 113, 23900 Lecco, Italy
Paolo Menesatti: CREA Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’Analisi dell’Economia Agraria, Via della Pascolare 16, Monterotondo, 00015 Rome, Italy

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: Simulation systems have become essential tools for both researchers and virtual laboratory experiments. In the Agri-food-chain, SimAgri, a driving simulator for tractors and operating machines, has been developed for precision agriculture (PA) research and to train professional farm drivers. Using the virtual environment of the simulator, the influence and fine-tuning of PA operations logic may be evaluated by simulating existing systems, or designing new ones, in specially compared scenarios and setups. Current configurations include an agricultural tractor carrying or towing farm equipment such as sprayers, seeders and fertilizer, embedded sensors, human–machine interfaces that may be configured like a joystick, console and touchscreen, and four virtual environment monitors. The study describes the design choices that have made it possible to create a simulator aimed at precision agriculture, keeping auto guidance, geolocation, and operations with ISOBUS implements as pillars. This research aims to use a unique purpose-designed simulation platform, installed on a driver-in-the-loop simulator to provide data to objectify the benefits of PA criteria. Numerical and experimental data have been compared to ensure results reliability.

Keywords: tractor; vehicle dynamics; autoguiding; geolocation; digital twin; training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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