The autonomous tractor from John Deere
One of the most cutting-edge agricultural items of the year was unveiled by John Deere at the CES in 2022: a completely autonomous tractor. The device combines the 8R tractor from the firm, a chisel plough with TruSet functionality, a GPS guiding system, and new, cutting-edge technologies. Six stereo camera pairs on the tractor identify obstructions, measure distance, and constantly monitor their location in relation to a geofence.
Farmers only need to move the tractor to the fields and set it up for autonomous operation using the John Deere Operations Center in order to operate it. Once it is set up, the farmer may monitor the equipment from their mobile device while they are away from the field and concentrating on other duties.
With this tractor, John Deere made its intention to feed the globe very apparent at the CES. By 2050, the world’s population is projected to increase from roughly 8 billion to almost 10 billion, resulting in a 50% increase in the demand for food.
Farmers must therefore feed this population with less available land and competent labour, and they desperately need assistance. This tractor is an example of how other sectors are incorporating autonomy into their fleets, such as with Caterpillar’s self-driving mining machines.
Drones from Equinox Drones for aerial imaging
Aerial drones provide faster and more detailed information on issues like insect damage, nutrient deficits, invasive species, and agricultural production projections than satellites, which only provide the overall image.
For instance, the drone services provided by the startup Equinox’s Drones include crop surveillance, aerial inspection, data processing, and data analysis. They accomplish this with the use of digital models, ortho-mosaic maps, 3D point clouds, contour maps, and more. Images and videos captured by the drones are edited to enable airborne crop inspection and data analysis. Farmers are able to make wiser decisions on their farming because of this.
Drones from Equinox have already helped with flood damage assessment and government documentation, led drainage and irrigation planning, discovered citrus plants threatened by a fungal disease, and more.