The automation of agricultural work tools reaches an unexpected level with this autonomous tractor presented at CES 2022.
During CES 2022, the biggest tech show of the year, the announcements follow one another and, often, look alike. From the smartphone industry, to televisions, via connected objects or other gaming accessories, brands have in turn presented a wide variety of products which will all, or almost all, be marketed in 2022. But among the classic objects , there are some atypical nuggets, like this completely autonomous tractor.
It is the American company John Deere, specialized in the construction of agricultural equipment, which presented this rather particular model. This is a new version of its 8R model, which includes an array of accessories, such as a TruSet snow plow, GPS guidance system and more. It is the very first tractor of the brand, and even of the world, which can run independently 24/7.
The world’s first autonomous tractor
Of course, you will need to refuel several times a day. It has a real autonomy that lasts between 8 and 10 hours. Without a driver, we can also ask ourselves the question of a job well done, or even possible complications. Don’t panic, John Deere has thought of everything. The agricultural machine therefore has a myriad of cameras, 12 in total, which will help it to locate the slightest obstacle in its path but also to guide itself thanks to its 360 ° vision and a ton of collected images, and processed in a database for 3 years.
To do this, the tractor also checks its position very regularly using the GPS guidance system. For the more picky, the machine should not be able to deviate from its trajectory by more than 2.5cm. Willy Pell, vice president of autonomy and new businesses, said:
” It is difficult to see events for which we do not have training data. For example, if a billboard falls in a field. In response, John Deere has built an anomaly detection system that recognizes abnormal systems, and when it encounters new objects, the machine simply stops. “.
A real fairground animal
To make it the perfect tool for every farmer, the autonomous tractor has a variety of attachments, which allow him to either turn the soil or even sow. In just 24 hours, the machine can survey 325 acres of land. Knowing that more than half of the farmers in France are over 50 years old, this would be a good way to assist them on a daily basis.
