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This paper introduces a Semantic Landmark Particle Filter (SLPF) for robust robot localization in vineyards, addressing the challenge of perceptual aliasing caused by repetitive crop rows. SLPF integrates 2D LiDAR data with semantic landmark detections of trunks and poles, converting trunks into semantic walls to define row boundaries within a probabilistic framework. Experimental results in a vineyard demonstrate that SLPF significantly improves localization accuracy compared to geometry-only, vision-based, and GNSS baselines, reducing Absolute Pose Error by up to 65%.
Robots lost in the vineyard? Not anymore: encoding row-level semantics into a particle filter enables robust localization in repetitive agricultural environments where LiDAR and vision alone fail.
Reliable localisation in vineyards is hindered by row-level perceptual aliasing: parallel crop rows produce nearly identical LiDAR observations, causing geometry-only and vision-based SLAM systems to converge towards incorrect corridors, particularly during headland transitions. We present a Semantic Landmark Particle Filter (SLPF) that integrates trunk and pole landmark detections with 2D LiDAR within a probabilistic localisation framework. Detected trunks are converted into semantic walls, forming structural row boundaries embedded in the measurement model to improve discrimination between adjacent rows. GNSS is incorporated as a lightweight prior that stabilises localisation when semantic observations are sparse. Field experiments in a 10-row vineyard demonstrate consistent improvements over geometry-only (AMCL), vision-based (RTAB-Map), and GNSS baselines. Compared to AMCL, SLPF reduces Absolute Pose Error by 22% and 65% across two traversal directions; relative to a NoisyGNSS baseline, APE decreases by 65% and 61%. Row correctness improves from 0.67 to 0.73, while mean cross-track error decreases from 1.40 m to 1.26 m. These results show that embedding row-level structural semantics within the measurement model enables robust localisation in highly repetitive outdoor agricultural environments.
