Deere says its robo-tractors are ready to till the fields



Tue, January 4, 2022
By Joseph White

DETROIT (Reuters) - John Deere & Co said on Tuesday it will start commercial delivery this year of technology that enables a tractor to till a field without an operator in the cab, a first for the top North American tractor manufacturer after years of effort to automate farm work.

Deere plans a low-volume launch this year delivering systems for 12 to 20 machines, and then scaling up, Jahmy Hindman, Deere's chief technology officer, told Reuters. The company is weighing whether to sell the technology, lease it, or offer it to farmers in a subscription package that could allow for upgrades as hardware and software evolve, he said.

The cameras and computers for automated tilling can be installed on an existing tractor and tiller machine in a day, Hindman said.

Deere and other equipment makers such as Caterpillar have invested heavily in technology to automate off-highway vehicles such as farm tractors and mining machines. In the farm sector, finding workers to operate tractors is a chronic problem made more acute by the pandemic.

For the farm equipment industry, Deere's commercial launch is a significant step in a journey that has been underway for nearly two decades, beginning with the use of satellite positioning and later hands-free operation with a driver still in the cab. Deere has been testing fully autonomous tractors for three to four years, Hindman said.

While automated tractors do not have to contend with pedestrians, the chaos of urban traffic or highway safety regulations, Hindman said self-driving tractors do need to be able to navigate accurately, avoid obstacles and precisely control equipment such as a tiller.

Deere's initial automated tractors will use stereo cameras in the front and rear, and can send images of what the cameras see via a smartphone app to a farmer or equipment operator. The operator can take the tractor to a field, swipe the smartphone screen and the machine will start on a programmed path.

The tractor's computerized vision system will monitor the tiller, which will have mirrors installed on the shanks that churn plant stubble into the ground. If one of the shanks hits a rock and gets tipped up, the change in the reflection from the mirror will be visible to a remote operator.

Deere is working on automating other farm operations, with spraying likely the next target for automation, Hindman said.

(Reporting By Joe White; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Deere unveils autonomous tractor to transform agriculture



Joann Muller
Tue, January 4, 2022

Deere & Company introduced the world's first autonomous tractor Tuesday, a technology breakthrough that could help farmers cope with a worsening skilled labor shortage.

Why it matters: Farmers are getting older — 55 years old on average — and with more than 80% of the U.S. population residing in urban areas, there aren't enough laborers to do the work or operate machinery.

So robots are the new farmhands as growers try to boost productivity to keep up with soaring global demand for food, biofuels and other agricultural products.

Driving the news: The giant green and yellow machine, which debuted at CES, the annual consumer electronic show in Las Vegas, represents a new era in agriculture.

"The last time agriculture was on the precipice of this much change was when we were on the cusp of replacing the horse and plow," Deere Chief Technology Officer Jahmy Hindman tells Axios.

For the first time, a farm tool can do the work without a human or animal providing the labor.

While Deere has had self-guided tractors since 1999, operators have remained in the cab. Now, its tractors can operate autonomously, 24 hours a day.

All the farmer has to do is transport the machine to a field and configure it for autonomous operation. Using a phone or tablet, the farmer then swipes left to right on Deere's app to start the machine.

The farmer can leave the field to focus on other tasks while monitoring the machine's status on a mobile device.

How it works: Deere’s 8R tractor is outfitted with a GPS guidance system and new advanced technologies including artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

Six pairs of stereo cameras provide a 360-degree view around the machine.

Images captured by the cameras are passed through a deep neural network at a rate of 3 frames per second to determine if an obstacle is detected and whether the machine should keep moving or stop.

The tractor continuously checks its position relative to a so-called "geofence," to make sure it's operating where it is supposed to, within an inch of accuracy.

Data collected by the tractor can also help farmers make better strategic decisions in the future.

The bottom line: Deere has been adding automation to its farm machinery for 20 years, enabling precision planting, for example, and the spraying of fertilizer or pesticides on individual plants.

With its fully autonomous tractor, available later this year, farmers can now leave chores like tilling the soil to the machine.