John Deere’s iconic 8 series tractor has been transformed into a state-of-the-art machine that’s set to impact the farming sector. The fully autonomous tractor was unveiled at the CES 2022 trade show on January 2, 2022.
A GPS guidance system, TruSet-enabled chisel plow, and advanced technologies have upgraded Deere’s 8R tractor into a hi-tech tool capable of completing a variety of tasks. Once transported to a field, farmers can configure it for an autonomous run.
Its capabilities include everything from planting seeds, to spraying nutrients, and harvesting crops down to one inch of accuracy – all without any manning of the steering wheel.
Once the machine is operational, it can be monitored on a mobile device, thereby freeing up the farmer to focus on other tasks. During the process, John Deere Operations Center Mobile provides farmers with access to live video, images, data, and metrics. This facilitates adjustment of speed, depth and overall optimisation of the machine’s performance. In the event of any job quality anomalies or machine health issues, farmers are notified remotely.
Six pairs of stereo cameras also enable 360-degree obstacle detection and distance calculation. Captured images pass through a neural network that classifies each pixel in approximately 100 milliseconds and determines if the machine should continue to move or stop, depending on any obstacle encountered. The autonomous tractor also continuously checks its position relative to a geofence.
This self-driving tractor allows farmers to boost harvests without using more labour. It will be available for purchase later in 2022.
LSL News.