During my college studies in electrical engineering in the early 60s, I had a part time & summer job doing electronics stuff for an Ag Engineering Professor. I was the only electronics wizard employed by the Ag Engineering Department so I got handed around some when other profs had some electronic related work. One of these was a wire guided tractor system which used a wire loop on the ground. A two coil pickup system was attached to the front wheels of a tricycle type tractor. The tractor would follow the wire.
The department or the Ag School had a demonstration day for visiting farmers so they could see the research where their tax money went. One of the demonstrations was the wire guided tractor without an operator, but pulling a grain wagon. My job was to install the wire. I stapled it to the ground every few feet. On the day of the demo I started the tractor with a switch system from behind the grain wagon, followed it around the loop and switched it off at the completion of the loop. The Prof was on the PA stand explaining the system and describing the operation. We were up first and everything went well. This had been a concern, since spectators were allowed to roam through the area.
Year two: Same thing with the addition of grain in the wagon to be unloaded into a feed trough after the tractor and wagon had completed the loop. Everything worked well in the pre-demo run through, but we were scheduled in the middle of the program, no longer first. I started the tractor from the rear control panel & put it in gear. The tractor took off in a random direction, the front end swinging back & forth. It was searching for a lost signal. I turned it off and the Prof jumped off of the PA stand, ran through the crowd and drove the system around the loop from the control panel. He was able to complete his program, except that the grain missed the target at the end.
Would you please post a link to the video from the article? I can’t find it.
Now, I’m no farmer, but wouldn’t a guide wire buried in a field cause havoc with plows and harrows?
GPS has become so much more than I would have ever dreamed.
Yesterday I did a bit of shopping. I stopped at two grocery stores, Walmart, gas station and my pharmacy. I always bring my phone in case of emergency.
Later that afternoon, I was using the phone and noticed a message asking how I liked my shopping trip at XYZ grocery store. I wondered how they could know that as it is a small grocery and I used cash.
When I clicked on it, there were all the places I visited except for the Pharmacy. For some reason it missed that. I had used cash for some and a debit card for others.
I finally realized it was GPS. I didn’t really care except the whole thing is a bit scary. What if they implanted a chip under your skin? I could see some benefits such as finding a lost child but I really don’t want to go there.