Robotic Farmers Coming to A Field Near You

by

Tractor companies have long been a hotbed of innovation, but over the past few years the rapid development of autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AI) the industry has seen a quantum leap in technology that will quickly change the nature of farming.

Long established companies like Kubota, Case, New Holland and John Deere have all brought out fully autonomous tractors between 2015 and 2018, but new players like Autonomous Solutions Inc. are also bringing stunning new developments to farms, orchards and vineyards.

In one startling experiment in Shropshire, England last summer an entire field of barley was planted, tended and harvested using nothing but robotic equipment.

The ‘Hands Free Hectare’ project was set up in October, 2016 by a team from Harper Adams University. They modified a tractor and combine harvester with cameras, lasers and GPS systems to create equipment that could do the job with no human intervention.

Autonomous drones and a small robot scout on the ground handled the monitoring of the field.

While the Hands Free Hectare was an experiment, Kubota tractors are now hitting the ground in Japan this year with full-fledged sales of self-driving tractors, following trials last year.

Because the tractors need to be monitored, Kubota assumes the farmers will operate two tractors in tandem, one with a driver and the second using the Kubota Smart Agri System (KSAS) to drive itself and operate the machinery independently.

John Deere has been working on self-driving tractors for two decades now, having built its first autonomous navigation system way back in the 1990s.

Dan Leibfried, Director of embedded solutions at John Deere’s Intelligent Solutions Group, says total autonomy is still some years away, as self-driving systems don’t have either the intelligence or the senses of a human being.

“We have to have the ability to sense everything the human would inside of the system related to the quality of the job,” said Leibfried. “Whether it be preparing the soil, planting the seed, protecting the crop, or harvesting it.”

For now, John Deere’s self driving tractors still must have a human in the cab to make sure nothing goes wrong, even though they can function without human input.

Not to be outdone, Mahindra showcased their own driverless tractor in September last year at the Mahindra Research Valley facility near Chennai, India.

Prototypes are already fully driverless, but beginning this year Mahindra will start marketing the first of their ‘quasi driverless’ models in India. Those will be followed by a completely driverless tractor line once testing is complete.

“Our tractor R & D has always been at the forefront of pioneering cutting edge solutions. Today’s display of the driverless tractor is another proud moment for us, as it opens up new possibilities in farming,” said Dr. Pawan Goenka, managing director at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. “We are happy to dedicate this innovative mechanization for the global farming community.”

One of the companies doing the most work on self driving tractors is Autonomous Solutions Inc., which unveiled new concept tractors in partnership with CNH Industrial, the maker of both Case and New Holland tractors.

The one that really turned heads was a Case IH Magnum tractor unveiled at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa last August. What blew people’s minds was that the sleek, futuristic machine had no cab for a human driver. It is designed to only work on its own, though it can be sent instructions remotely through computer tablet software.

ASI founder and CEO Mel Torrie says the partnership with CNH is critical in developing solutions that can be applied across the entire agricultural sector.

“Our relationship with CNH Industrial is vital in facilitating the near term disruption of how farming is done. We’re thrilled to be working with the leaders in Ag innovation to make this exciting future of driverless tractors a reality,” Torrie said. “Autonomous tractor technology will address the growing concern of labor shortages while also increasing productivity and efficiencies bringing higher yields. The technology will allow for true 24-hour, round the clock operations and a farmer will be able to manage their operation from their home office or on a tablet on the go.”

The ASI technology is already being applied to the orchard and vineyard industries, with specialized narrow tractors that eerily drive through the rows of plants with no driver in the cab, that circle around at the end of each row, and then proceed throughout the vineyard or orchard.

The system can even have multiple tractors working tandem.

There’s some good news for farmers as well, as many of the systems being developed can be applied to existing tractors. For example, both John Deere and ASI offer their systems for multiple brands of tractors.

At the moment, no fully autonomous tractors are available for purchase in Canada just yet, but with sales beginning this year in Japan, it’s expected the technology will start to spread into North America by as early as 2019.