This video is part of our TechXchange Talks series.
John Deere is looking to deliver a fully autonomous tractor to farmers for production use. In this video, I talked with Gaurav Bansal of John Deere's Blue River Technology group that worked on the machine-learning support.
The tractor combines Deere's 8R tractor that includes a GPS guidance system in addition to its artificial-intelligence (AI) system. It will initially be paired with the TruSet-enabled chisel plow (see figure). This combination can prep 325 acres in 24 hours.
The tractor can be driven by a person, but also is controllable via an on-board system that can be managed using a smartphone application. The app is able to monitor the tractor's progress and present alerts when anomalies occur, such as an unknown obstruction. The system employs half-a-dozen stereo cameras to detect obstacles and recognize its surroundings.
For more in-depth coverage, check out this video Q&A on the perception technology behind the tractor from our sister publication Power & Motion. Technical Editor Sara Jensen talks with Noah Schwartz, Lead Perception Engineer at Bear Flag Robotics—a developer of autonomous technology for agriculture equipment recently acquired by John Deere.
View more videos in our TechXchange Talks series.