2.4 Tailored Behavior State Machine of OpenPlanner for Greenhouse

A behavior state machine is utilized to guide the robot’s specific reactions under varying conditions. This finite state machine is a computational model often employed in applications requiring definitive transitions between different states (Conner and Willis, 2017). For example, whether to approach or avoid a plant upon encounter is dependent on the specific task being executed.
A behavior state transition table designed for greenhouse environments is shown in Table 1, which can be adjusted based on actual work requirements.
However, due to numerous disturbances in agricultural environments, the robot reacts to each minor change. This reaction triggers frequent state transitions, consequently causing system instability. To mitigate this problem, a hysteresis execution strategy is introduced in this paper. The timer is initiated upon the detection of a potential state transition. The state transition only ensues if the conditions are sustained for a predetermined period, set at 0.5 seconds in this study. Should the conditions not persist for this duration, the timer is reset to prevent the state transition.
Table 1 . Behavior State Machine Designed for Greenhouse Environment