Dereje, Shiferaw (PhD)Asheberom, Gebreslassie2021-03-302023-11-282021-03-302023-11-282020-12http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/25774Agricultural robotic vehicles have the capacity to play a key role in the future of agriculture. For this to have controller designs that are cost effective and easy to use is very important. Agricultural robots which operate in row culture agricultural need to strictly follow the wheel tracks. The robot kind selected in this thesis is a differential drive wheel agricultural robot with one rear mounted caster and two front wheels. Navigation errors where the robot sways of its path with one or more wheels may damage the crops. Since model of the plant is paramount in designing of the MPC, mathematical model of the robot involves two identical series DC motors dynamics, the robot chassis dynamics and the robot kin-ematics. The model of the robot is simulated in MATLAB. The effect of change in mass of the robot is considered as disturbance for the better position and orientation straight crop row tracking. This paper focuses on the designing of MPC (Model Predictive Control) for agricultural robot operation in row cultures and then improves the performance of the robot to track its position and orientation from the desired crop line position. The two DC series motors found in each front wheels and the controller are simulated by MATLAB. The input component (pinhole camera) is specified. The robot position (x, y), orientation (α) and control signals (���� ,����) are constrained to restrict the forward speed and maximum error of the angle or heading. The performance of the proposed controllers for position and orientation set point tracking is evaluated through simulation studies. The simulation results show that the cost of tracking the desired position (����,����) and orientation (����) of the crop in the row is ��=1.0653∗��−10. The lowest cost function means the lowest error between the desired and actual position, orientation. The MPC approach is very advantageous and display better performance when facing the path constraints of operating in agricultural which follow row culture.en-USModel Predictive ControlMathematical modelDifferential drive wheel agri-cultural robotDisturbanceCrop row trackingThesis