A current trend in the agricultural area is the development of mobile robots and autonomous vehicles for precision agriculture\r\n(PA). One of the major challenges in the design of these robots is the development of the electronic architecture for the control of\r\nthe devices. In a joint project among research institutions and a private company in Brazil a multifunctional robotic platform for\r\ninformation acquisition in PA is being designed. This platformhas as main characteristics four-wheel propulsion and independent\r\nsteering, adjustable width, span of 1,80m in height, diesel engine, hydraulic system, and a CAN-based networked control system\r\n(NCS). This paper presents a NCS solution for the platform guidance by the four-wheel hydraulic steering distributed control.\r\nThe control strategy, centered on the robot manipulators control theory, is based on the difference between the desired and actual\r\nposition and considering the angular speed of the wheels. The results demonstrate that the NCS was simple and efficient, providing\r\nsuitable steering performance for the platform guidance. Even though the simplicity of the NCS solution developed, it also\r\novercame some verified control challenges in the robot guidance system design such as the hydraulic system delay, nonlinearities\r\nin the steering actuators, and inertia in the steering system due the friction of different terrains.
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