Posted on 06/22/2015 3:10:20 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
Google has received tons of gushy press for its bubble-shaped self-driving car, though it's still years from the showroom floor. But for years John Deere has been selling tractors that practically drive themselves for use on farms in America's heartland, where there are few pesky pedestrians or federal rules to get in the way.
For a glimpse at the future, meet Jason Poole, a 34-year-old crop consultant from Kansas. After a long day of meetings earlier this month and driving five hours across the state to watch his little girl's softball game, he was still able to run his John Deere tractor until 2 a.m. thanks to technology that left most of the driving up to a computer.
The land is hilly on Poole's family farm, so he drives the first curved row manually to teach the layout to his tractor's guidance system and handles the turns himself. But after that, he takes his hands off the steering wheel and allows the tractor to finish.
"We kind of laugh when we see news stories about self-driving cars, because we've had that for years," Poole said.
And the advancements being rolled out on the farm could soon show up next door: Your neighbor can already replace his lawn mower with the John Deere equivalent of a Roomba robotic vacuum for his yard.
The self-driving technology being sold by John Deere and some of its competitors are less technically complex than the fully driverless cars that big tech companies and car manufacturers are working on. And for now, the tractors are still supposed to have a driver behind the wheel - even if they never touch it.
But they've already started to transform farming in America and abroad: John Deere is selling auto-steering and other self-guidance tech in more than 100 countries
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
What’s so stunning is how this has utterly changed yields... Huge increases in production per acre when the lines are laser-correct and hardly a stalk is crushed or overlooked.
As usual.... Corporate America... American Agriculture...
Feeding the world while righteous hippies who couldn’t even start a tractor call us “murderers.”
Not much opposing traffic in a field, though.
Not having to deal with government regulations on public land makes it easier to develop the tech.
As always.
As usual.... Corporate America... American Agriculture...
Feeding the world while righteous hippies who couldn’t even start a tractor call us “murderers.”
What a nice and cogent observation. So refreshing to hear the truth spoken so plainly.
Like there aren’t any for Roomba vacuums... but let a cat get its tail caught in one and HSUS will demand it.
Ghost farmers
And caterpillar
This has been around at least 15 years. Starts with a GPS system and then adds a more refined RF grid and other data to get accuracy less than one inch. Not limited to any particular equipment manufacturer.
“The idea of a driverless tractor has been around since as early as 1940, when Frank W. Andrew invented his own. To guide his driverless tractor, a barrel or fixed wheel would be put in the center of the field and around it would wind a cable attached to a steering arm on the front of the tractor.[5] In the 1950s Ford developed a driverless tractor that they called “The Sniffer” but it was never produced because it could not be operated without running wire underground through the field.[6] There were no major advances in driverless tractor technologies until 1994 when engineers at the Silsoh Research Institute developed the picture analysis system, which was used to guide a small driverless tractor designed for vegetable and root crops. This new tractor could even handle slight headland turns.[7]
Current driverless tractor technologies build on recent developments in unmanned vehicles and agricultural technology. A tractor is defined as a powerful motor-driven vehicle with large, heavy treads, used for pulling farm machinery and other vehicles.[8] Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks. Precision agriculture was a major shift in technology that occurred in the 1980s. The result was tractors that farmers drove with the aid of GPS devices and on-board computers. Precision agriculture focuses on maximizing returns while using minimum resources. With the aid of GPS devices and computers, farmers could use tractors more efficiently.
Next, engineers worked on semi-automated tractors. These tractors had drivers, but the drivers only had to steer at the end of each row.[9] Subsequently, the idea of a driverless tractor emerged in 2011 and 2012.
Driverless tractors were initially created to follow a main tractor (with a driver). This would allow one driver to do twice as much work using what is called “follow-me” technology. The driverless tractor would follow a lead tractor between fields just like a hired hand would. But now driverless tractor technologies have moved toward autonomy, or independent functioning.[4][10]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driverless_tractor
With our wet year in Hoosierland, farmers trying to side dress their corn with nitrogen are having issues when they have side slippage with the tractor. They end up plowing up corn before they can get manual control back.
Seems that could also be an issue with slick roads
I am a retired John Deere Electrical Engineer and I worked on the AutoTrak system back in the day. It was not without the obvious safety concerns but we had a great bunch of engineers who worked it out.
It was amazing to go to work at JD in the early 1980’s when a few sensors to monitor engine and transmission pressures, temps, etc were the state of the art and then 15 years later introduce Autotak. John Deere was a great company to work for but it was not without it’s hassles. It is still the same AMERICAN company it was in 1837 when John Deere himself founded it. It has never been bought out.
I was blessed to be able to work there and now two of my three son-in-laws and a nephew work there.
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