In North America
Autonomous New Holland in practice
Like fellow manufacturer Case IH, New Holland is also entering the field with an autonomous tractor. Not a huge articulated tractor on tracks, but a narrow-gauge model that delivers 110 hp. This tractor can be used for mowing grass and for spraying.
The Italian manufacturer is converting a T4.110F tractor into a robot tractor for the autonomous NHDrive concept. It made publicity with this before, when a larger T8 and T7 were shown with the same technology on board. A California wine company is going to experiment with it. Earlier this month, Case IH already made known to test robot tractors on an open field vegetable farm in the same condition.
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Robots for special crops
Carlo Lambro, brand president of New Holland, sees a lot in autonomous technology. According to him, special and high-yielding crops such as grape cultivation can benefit greatly from robotisation. The standard tractor, which the American company will be testing, will be equipped with the necessary sensors and cameras. It also supplies the American company ATI, which CNH collaborates in the field of autonomous vehicle technology.
3 levels
As with Case IH, New Holland's autonomous vehicle project focuses on 3 levels: driver support systems, autonomous technology where the driver maintains control in the field and fully autonomous technology. The farmer only keeps an overview from the office. New Holland also wants to start working with such tractors in the Netherlands in the short term.
It makes sense for New Holland to put their marketing machine to work promoting the NHDrive concept. It can be difficult to separate marketing from fact. The T8 and T7 tractors exhibited at European trade fairs were primarily intended to excite visitors and receive industry opinions. What full liners like CNH mainly struggle with is the lack of legislation and regulations in this area. The technology is usually available, but the brake is somewhat held up.
5 years earlier
It is logical that a global player such as New Holland is investing in robotics. It shows the next step in mechanization land. The technology is not new for a Dutch farmer. As early as 2013, a robot tractor was driving around in the Netherlands. Electronics specialist Probotiq (now Precision Makers) developed an autonomous fruit-growing tractor together with sprayer manufacturer KWH Holland, WUR and Fendt importer Abemec. Several commercial companies are now driving around in practice.
The X-pert'robot package', as Precision Makers calls it, is now offered worldwide. For fruit growing, but also for the autonomous mowing of golf courses and for arable farms. Recently, the company made headlines when it modified a John Deere 8R for a Danish arable farmer. A robotized Fendt with a field sprayer has been running in Australia for several years now.
Robot is stupid
X-pert uses the so-called Teach & Playback technique. You do it once and then the machine repeats your action over and over. This works well when the circumstances and the environment do not change, such as a milking or feeding robot. Bottleneck continues to say that the robot is a (relatively) dumb thing, which excels at repeating repetitive tasks.
If the ground suddenly becomes heavier or lighter, the machine settings are (still) adjusted. That is the next step that CNH is focusing on. Full liners have the advantage that they do not have to work brand-independently. Handy when you want to let the tractor and implement talk to each other. However, we are a few years further before that. Until then, the Netherlands has gold in its hands.
Robot tractors have been in practice in the Netherlands since 2013. Photo: Precision Makers
Niels van der Boom
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