Expect more autonomous farm machinery in future

The shift to autonomy is an evolution, not a revolution, with lots of side issues yet to be resolved.

Autonomous machines have been around awhile. Consider your coffee pot. Today, having fresh coffee when you wake up is as simple as programming it the night before to be made by 6:30 a.m.

Companies have created autonomous machine prototypes that are efficient and precise. Today, many are hands-free and remotely operated. The use of autonomous machinery is a slow evolution, progressing with time.

“It’s a technology evolution that will evolve with the needs of the customers,” says Brad Lukac, Case IH Magnum global product manager.

Autonomous machinery can be described as driverless tractors, unmanned planters or unmanned aerial vehicles. These machines can be remotely controlled from a different location, and can be programmed to follow certain paths and even collect specific data.

Case IH has five categories that all agricultural machinery falls under: guidance, coordination and optimization, operator-assisted autonomy, supervised autonomy, and full autonomy.

Case IH revealed its autonomous concept tractor in 2016 and has continued to make improvements. The vehicle can travel on premapped roads, stop for an obstacle, and wait to move or alert someone remotely to help move around the obstacle.

It can plot the most efficient in-field routes. The machine can operate alone in the field fully autonomous, or the farmer can opt to use a cab with the automated machine.

Case IH isn’t alone in this machinery shift. John Deere recently partnered with a Netherlands-based company named Precision Makers, which specializes in autonomous technology. Precision Makers is affiliated with Dutch Power and is working on autonomous mowing technology for the golf and turf industry.

Future direction

Most machinery today has some type of automation; almost all tractors have some sort of GPS technology, which is a step on the way to full automation.

Aligning with the CNH stages of autonomy, the adoption of fully autonomous machinery will happen gradually, says Dennis Buckmaster, an Extension ag engineer at Purdue University.

For machinery to be completely autonomous, it needs anomaly detection, according to Buckmaster, and that anomaly detection isn’t trivial. It is tough to think and design around all things that might not occur correctly. A machine needs to be able to properly register these issues in the field and notify someone remotely.

The use of autonomous vehicles in agriculture is a question of when, not if, says Roger Tormoehlen, also a Purdue Extension ag engineer.

Tormoehlen spoke from experience on the use of autonomous machines in agriculture. “I grew up on a dairy farm, and it was in the ’90s,” he begins. “We had a feeding system that was essentially, to a certain level, a robot. The cow had an ID tag around its neck, and when it walked into the feeding area, the computer read that tag and dispensed an amount of feed based on milk production level.”

There is a question on what the future of autonomous machines might be. Will farms have one large autonomous machine or multiple small machines?

“There are certain infrastructure elements that you need in order for equipment to be autonomous,” Buckmaster says. “Whether you have a four-, six- or 12-row unit, you will need to have a camera [or cameras], communication package, and actuators to steer and control.”

With multiple autonomous planters, each machine would have needs and requirements. No one will have 24 one-row planters, but not everyone needs one 24-row planter, he notes. The concept of multiple machines per farm is on the radar of large companies.

“That type of concept, let’s say, it’ll be enabled, but it will be the customers who decide how far it is taken,” Lukac says. “It’s all based on their own local economics, and it only works for certain applications. There are still going to be applications that are out there that require super high-power tractors.”