PiLot: Autonomous Rover for Smarter Agriculture

Overview

PiLot is an autonomous Uncrewed Ground Vehicle (UGV) designed to automate essential farming tasks such as crop monitoring and field navigation. By integrating high-precision GPS, real-time obstacle detection, and cloud-based data streaming, PiLot addresses labour shortages and boosts efficiency in New Zealand agriculture. The system is scalable for future AI and sensor upgrades, benefiting farmers and agri-tech innovators seeking sustainable, cost-effective solutions.

Problem Statement

New Zealand’s agriculture sector faces rising labour costs and recurring shortages of seasonal workers, which threaten productivity and profitability. Manual field tasks are time-consuming and prone to human error. PiLot aims to automate these operations, reducing reliance on manual labour and enabling precise, efficient farm management.

Goals & Objectives

• Achieve autonomous navigation using GPS waypoints with ±10cm accuracy
• Implement real-time obstacle detection and avoidance
• Enable cloud-based monitoring and data storage for remote oversight
• Provide a scalable platform for future AI and sensor integration

My Role

• Led the integration of navigation and obstacle detection systems
• Developed and tested cloud dashboard for real-time monitoring
• Coordinated subsystem testing and project documentation

Key Features

• Autonomous GPS Navigation: Follows preset waypoints using RTK GPS for high-accuracy movement
• Obstacle Avoidance: Uses Intel RealSense depth camera to detect and navigate around obstacles in real time
• Cloud Dashboard: Streams live location and sensor data for remote monitoring and analysis
• Image Capture: Captures and stores field images for future computer vision applications

Gallery / Demo

Contact

For questions or collaboration, reach me at yogi.nehra14@gmail.com or LinkedIn.