JOHN Deere has revealed a fully autonomous tractor that’s ready for large-scale production. The machine combines Deere’s 8R Tractor, TruSet-enabled chisel plough, GPS guidance system, and new advanced technologies. The autonomous tractor will be available to farmers later this year.
The 8R410 looks very similar in appearance to a conventional tractor of the series but is equipped with state-of-the-art technology for controlling and monitoring the tractor and mounted excavator.
The autonomous tractor has six pairs of stereo cameras, which enables 360-degree obstacle de-tection and the calculation of distance.
Images captured by the cameras are passed through a deep neural network that classifies each pixel in approximately 100 milliseconds and determines if the machine continues to move or stops, depending on if an obstacle is detected.
The autonomous tractor is also continuously checking its position relative to a geofence, ensuring it is operating where it is supposed to, and is within less than an inch of accuracy.
To use the autonomous tractor, farmers only need to transport the machine to a field and configure it for autonomous operation. Using John Deere Operations Centre Mobile, they can swipe from left to right to start the machine. While the machine is working the farmer can leave the field to focus on other tasks, while monitoring the machine’s status from their mobile device.
Currently, the technology for
the 8R410 is available in combination with a special John Deere chisel plough. The launch of the brand in Europe is currently not planned, as safety regulations currently do not allow the use of autonomous vehicles.
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