The autonomous tractor for the farmer 4.0

If smart cars with autonomous and connected driving are now the masters at Ces in Las Vegas, one of the largest producers of agricultural machinery could not escape this technological revolution. John Deere, which made history with its innovative green and yellow vehicles, upsets its centennial tradition as a faithful companion of farmers all over the world, with the first self-driving tractor equipped with artificial intelligence. A presentation heralded as an impending revolution in the world of agriculture

THE AUTONOMOUS DRIVING TRACTOR

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Ready for large-scale production by the end of the year in Iowa factories, the tractor combines Deere’s famous 8R with GPS guidance and new advanced technologies. Once brought on site and configured, the new autonomous 8R is controlled via an app: using the John Deere Operations Center Mobile, just swipe from left to right to start the machine, and that’s it. While the vehicle is in operation, the farmer can comfortably leave his fields to concentrate on other activities, monitoring the status of the machine from his mobile device. John Deere Operations Center Mobile provides access to live video, images, data and metrics, and allows the farmer to adjust speed, depth and many other variables. In case of anomalies in the quality of work, or technical problems with the machine, farmers are notified remotely, to make changes and optimize performance.

TECHNOLOGY AND TRADITION

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The autonomous tractor has six pairs of stereo cameras, which allow for 360 degree obstacle detection and distance calculation. The images captured by the cameras pass through a network that classifies each pixel in about 100 milliseconds, and determines whether the car continues to move or stop, depending on whether an obstacle is detected. In an initial production phase, the self-guided row crop tractors will be programmed to work the soil, thus continuing the tradition of innovation started by company founder John Deere 185 years ago, with one of the first steel plows of the country. “Subsequently – explains Deanna Kovar, vice president of production systems for precision agriculture at Deere – the company will expand the way in which driverless tractors can be used”. With alarming data on the growth of the world population, and an estimate of reaching almost 10 billion people by 2050, with a 50% increase in global food demand, the American company is thus preparing a “technological” offensive aimed at accelerating and facilitate work in campaigns globally. “Within each type of work – continues Deanna Kovar – the machines will be optimized to adapt to different factors, from the type of soil, to the different crops, the size of the field and the weather conditions”.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY

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The John Deere self-driving tractor, produced at the Waterloo Works plants, will be available later this year, although the agricultural machinery giant has not yet specified the cost. But considering the prices reached by vehicles of this type, which even exceed 200 thousand euros, it is clear that the newcomer will certainly not be within everyone’s reach.