Thanks for the help, xqms! I'll try to respond to your points in order...
One of the best parts about my new kill switch system is that I can program it. Yes, I originally made it so that there was a heartbeat and if the switch was hit, the heartbeat stopped and the tractor was killed. I switched away from that to only transmit a kill signal for a couple reasons. The main one is that I wanted to save the battery. I don't know how long it'll last if I'm transmitting all of the time but I sure don't want to run out of battery at the end of a day and be tempted to bypass the kill switch. I also plan to have several kill switches operating several robots which could be miles apart. I want kill switches to be able to move in and out of range without killing tractors. I do consider having one heartbeat switch that stays in the field with the tractor (and is connected to a power source like the command center) and then have other switches that send signals only when activated. I like keeping it simple for now, though.
I do not use a localization filter. I work directly from the GNSS data, which is plenty accurate for me. I would love to fuse an IMU, though, so I can get higher refresh rates and lower latency. Yes, "direct tf transforms" sounds like my current need.
Yes, I get course and pitch from the receivers. Here's the data I get about the base line to the second antenna:
1. Latitude-projection of base-line, m
2. Longitude-projection of base-line, m
3. Height-projection of base-line, m
4. Base-line length (Rover-to-Base distance), m
5. Base-line course (angle between base-line vector and North direction), degrees
6. Base-line pitch (angle between base-line vector and horizontal), degrees
Right now I'm using nvector for all of my calculations. I think about switching to UTM but I'm a little concerned about conversion errors, especially in fields which are over a mile in one dimension. I suppose that if I calculate my lines in nvector and then convert them to UTM, I should be OK.
Alright, modeling the robot in URDF seems to be the place to start. I've tried it a few times and not gotten far. I'm sure it's something I can do. I will give it a shot.
The next steps overwhelm me right now. Good to know I'm on the right path, though.
Thank you!
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