John Deere raises the ante for autonomous tractors: remote control from the smartphone and intelligent obstacle detection

The journey of autonomous tractors comes from afar and has even provoked certain reactions among some agricultural professions that see their jobs threatened (blessed smallholding), but John Deere, the legendary brand of tractors recognizable by the colors green and yellow – and by be almost unbreakable—, he has taken advantage of CES 2022 to increase his bet on these machines by taking them a couple of Steps furrows beyond.

If until now autonomous tractors were aimed above all at keeping the driver close, either inside the cab or a few meters to control him at a short distance with the system AutoTrac, the new John Deere kit allows control the tractor from anywhere via smartphone.

It is only necessary to travel to it to refuel and move it between fields. But once on the ground, you just have to trace the itinerary on the mobile screen at the touch of your finger, as if it were a sim to order a route.

Human supervisors and obstacle detection algorithm

Intelligence on board the tractor (AKA algorithm) detects incidents or any unexpected events. At that moment, cameras installed around the cabin send images to human telemarketers who monitor what is happening.

If it is an eventual event that has resolved itself, such as an animal that got too close to the tractor and then left, the machine will resume operation. If instead there is a persistent problem, the owner of the tractor will be notified through the Operations Center, the mobile app of the platform, so that you can see what is happening and go to solve it, although you can also vary the route from the application and postpone the resolution of the incident.

That’s where the machine learning of this new kit comes into play, whose detection algorithm is able to distinguish between harmless birds flying and Samoyeds hovering too close to our implement. In the first case, the tractor will continue as if nothing. In the second case, it is when the alert will go off. As farmers incorporate this kit into their machinery, the algorithm will improve the recognition of potential threats.

John Deere bought Bear Flag Robotics last summer, a startup specialized in autonomous agricultural machinery, although the deer company has said that it has not used any of its technologies for this kit, which has been progressively tested for almost three years by many farmers.

John Deere Standalone Kit, Price and Availability

The complete kit consists of six pairs of cameras to complete the 360º vision around the cockpit and a pair of Nvidia Jetson modules specific for Artificial Intelligence (and as in this case, artificial vision).

Compatibility with specific models of the house has not been disclosed, but we can expect it for some of the newer models, such as those of the 8R series.

Its initial availability is limited to some dealers in the United States as of March 2022, it is expected that over the months it will expand to more markets. Its price has not yet been revealed, but to get an idea we can take the Autotrac kit as a reference, far behind in terms of technology, which costs between $ 13,000 and $ 23,000 depending on the accessories chosen.