Paper Title
Sensing of Local Minima and Circumnavigation of Obstacles using VFH+ Algorithm for Agricultural Robots

Abstract
The use of autonomous mobile robots to apply fertilizer and pesticides will be essential for agricultural automation. This research work explores vector field histogram (VFH+)based strategies for avoiding obstacles. Local minima maybe produced by U-shaped traps while using the VFH algorithm,avoiding the local minima may prevent the robot from getting into a condition which is impossible to recover. Circumnavigation of the obstacle at proximity is also crucial for effective pesticide application and efficient travel. The simulation is carried out for a 2-wheel differential robot installedwith a 360-degree 2D-LIDAR(Light detecting and ranging) sensor used for feeding scannedproximity value to VFH+ algorithm. With acceptable results for optimum performance, the simulation was successfully executed in Matlab. Keywords - Autonomous Agriculture Robot, VFH, Pure Pursuit, Obstacle Avoidance