[ros-users] [Discourse.ros.org] [ROS Projects] Tractobots, my attempts at field robots

[Kyler Laird]

Converting to UTM and doing simple trig. calculations would be **vastly** easier for me.  I don't live near the equator or a pole but I'm still concerned about errors across a 1.5 mile field.  I especially want to be accurate enough to work in the same field with machinery running standard (Deere and Precision) equipment.

Here are the disadvantages of UTM that caught my attention:  (from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_position_representation#UTM))
1. Inherent distortion (due to the map projection) gives only approximate answers for most calculations
2. Calculations get complex when crossing the zones

I am fortunate to live smack in the middle of UTM Zone 16.  Perhaps the distortion I will see is negligible.  I would prefer to write code that anyone can use anywhere but I'm tempted to punt if this will satisfy my needs.

farmerbriantee, it is great to see your code.  I appreciate that you shared it.  There are Python libraries for the UTM conversions but I have been meaning to look for the trailer calculations after I get the basics handled.  (It would be nice to know where my towed 31-row bean planter is.)  I realize that you are not using ROS (and I barely do).  I will probably mirror your approach for now but I'm hoping for some help with using ROS transformations to do this work.  If UTM is sufficient, then I should be alright do use the transforms that way.

As the weather gets nicer here, I get more anxious about writing some usable code.  It's a huge relief to get such great help here.  Thanks, all.






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