CAN bus makes control system of agricultural machine networked, intelligent, and distributed because of its high data transmission rate, reliability and expandability. Distributed control network for CAN-based autonomous agricultural robot was designed. The objective was to present 4WD/4WS robot system structure and hardware structure and software design of CAN network in detail, and to prove it to be feasible that a controller area network (CAN bus) as the basis of an autonomous agricultural robot by the test of sending and receiving messages. Tests showed that CAN bus network could increase open and real-time of the robot system.