Manufacturers Create Smarter, Faster, Greener Equipment

The day when a tractor works a field without a human driver may not be as far off as you think, according to a USA Today article. It reports that Kinze Manufacturing Inc. has been testing new, autonomous row-crop technology that allows a driverless tractor to pull a grain cart. While the Kinze Autonomy Project is still in development, its technology is a hint of what is in store for future tractors. Also ahead, expect precision farming to become a requirement, rather than an option.

There’s a big push to make fuel-efficient tractors that cover more ground while burning less fuel, said one source, adding that tractor manufacturers also are increasingly making higher horsepower machines using smaller, more fuel-efficient engines.

Another innovation on the horizon is the increased use of rubber tracks instead of tires to help spread the load of a heavy, high-horsepower machine over more surface area. (It remains to be seen how state and local transportation officials will react to tracks on public roads.)

A safety-related feature that will soon appear on ag equipment is a back-up camera, said Dennis Buckmaster, a professor in agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University. The larger viewing area will make it easier for vehicles drivers to spot bystanders, hitch equipment together and make tight turns, he said. Back-up cameras have already been mandated by the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration for any vehicle less than 10,000 pounds made after May 1, 2018. Buckmaster said camera monitors in tractor cabs also are likely in the near future.

Manufacturers of autonomous tractors will need technology to let farmers pre-program paths set by a computer or phone, similar to that used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, Buckmaster said. While it would be more complicated, “if we can do that with a UAV, then we can do that with a tractor,” Buckmaster said.

New tractors also will likely incorporate technology using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to let one driver sync data exchange, travel speed and steering of two vehicles at once. Buckmaster said that, with this technology already developed, a more advanced “leader-follower system,” where one manned tractor has one or more tractors following it, probably is not far off.

This year Kinze announced the first electric multi-hybrid concept planter, which allows users to change the seed hybrid automatically as the planter moves through the field. Instead of planting an average seed variety across an entire field, seed hybrids can be selected and automatically planted to suit different field management zones.

Kinze Manufacturing, Association member since 1984; kinze.com. S