The objective of this study was to develop an automated rice transplanting
system in paddy fields. It is necessary to determine the precise position a
nd direction to control the vehicle automatically in paddy fields. In this
paper, the position of the rice transplanter was determined by real-time ki
nematic GPS (RTKGPS). The inclination of the rice transplanter influenced t
he RTKGPS position data, including time delay because the GPS antenna was s
et at a 2 m height from the ground. The correction can be performed by meas
uring the roll, the pitch and the yaw angles of the rice transplanter. The
yaw angle was measured using a fiber optic gyro (FOG) sensor and the roll a
nd pitch angles were measured using an inclination-measuring apparatus cons
isting of 3 FOG sensors and 3 accelerometers. When the rice transplanter wa
s driven automatically along the desired straight path, the deviation from
the desired straight path was less than 10 cm.