Farmers Ponder Driverless Tech for Precision Farming, Labor Needs

Burney Simpson

Farmers are looking at autonomous technology and a number of farm equipment OEMs and tech houses are developing driverless vehicles in response. Firms working in driverless farming range from established giants like John Deere to newcomers with connections to Carnegie Mellon.

Farmers were among the first to integrate of Global Position Systems (GPS) for operating tractors and other vehicles in the field, and GIS mapping systems for planning and operations.

Farms offer possibilities for autonomous-driving developers. They are typically privately-held, the land is remote, and there are no cars, annoying pedestrians, or stop lights out in the field. The challenge is that the land may be uneven with rocks, trees and an occasional building, along with large expensive vehicles that must be avoided.

Farmers, also called producers, are moving to precision farming, where every inch of land is used, and where vehicles can be programmed to reduce the waste of fuel, equipment, crops, and fertilizer. Meanwhile, technology is very good at conducting repetitive tasks, and it keeps going during labor-intensive times like the harvest.

However, the bottom line reasons for farms implementing autonomous vehicles is that they address a chronic labor shortage as rural youth migrate to cities, and the need to produce more food for a growing world population.

A FEW OF THE MAJORS IN AUTONOMOUS FARMING

Moline, Ill.-based John Deere is a huge farm equipment manufacturer. In 2008 it launched its autonomous ITEC Pro Guidance project that uses satellite-linked dome antennas to guide tractors and combines on programmed tracks while giving operators the capability of taking control of the vehicle.

Deere has filed for a number of patents this year, including a “leader-follower fully-autonomous vehicle with operator on side.”

Inc. magazine recently named Autonomous Solutions Inc. number 19 on its list of fast growing engineering firms. ASI builds hardware and software for the mining industry and other robotics-vehicle arenas. It components approach may be appealing to farmers shifting to precision operations on a budget.

ASI’s Mobius software is a robotics platform building block, allowing for multi-vehicle command and control. The Vantage tool is ASI’s obstacle-detection and avoidance system, and its Forecast tool is a LiDAR sensor that produces 3D images of an area. Its farm equipment includes tractors of several sizes and digging vehicles designed for orchards and vineyards.

The 15-year-old, Northern Utah-based, privately-held tech provider reports its revenue jumped more than 230 percent in 2014.

Precision variability is a theme for Minneapolis-based Rowbot Systems. Land is variable and farmers need autonomous devices that can move down rows and pump out fertilizer in variable amounts depending on the soil quality, water in the sector, the crop, and other factors.

Rowbot has launched a 30-inch wide, box-like autonomous device for corn growers. It is thin enough to move within the rows after the corn has grown a bit, to plant cover crops that protect the soil and make it healthier for next season’s corn crop. The founders are the Bares family, including John Bares, a cofounder of Carnegie Robotics.

Williamsburg, Iowa-based Kinze Manufacturing based in  builds the Autonomous Harvest system, a combine and driverless grain cart. The vehicles are connected via wireless communications and are programmed to move together down a row as the combine pumps the harvested crop into the connected cart.

Kinze has been field testing the system for several years with its partner Cambridge, Mass.-based Jaybridge Robotics. Kinze says that it improves efficiency as it reduces the need for a cart driver, and can virtually eliminate the crop destruction that is done today by these drivers. Jaybridge reported this year that producers can now operate multiple combines and carts at once.

The problem here is the cost of several hundred thousand for the cart alone. There has been a slowdown in demand for farm equipment and both Kinze and Deere have laid off workers this year.

CNH Global, owner of Case IH tractors offers it AFS AccuGuide guidance and steering tools for tractors, combines and sprayers. This builds on GPS and mapping systems. The farmer uses the AccuGuide to program a field pattern into the vehicle, choosing from straight, spiral, heading curved, and circle. Once the pattern is chosen, the operator can use it for planting, fertilizing and harvesting. Corn farmers can use the RowGuide during harvest, ensuring their combine stays on course in the row, reducing driver workload. The same guide can then be used to create rows the next year to streamline the whole process.

For driverless firms the opportunities in agriculture are similar to those in mining, with companies in both industries seeking to automate labor needs and lower costs. Creative tech firms and OEMs are coming up with a variety of approaches to meet this challenge due to the growth opportunities.