Weather update Topcon TAP
Open approach makes GPS data accessible
After the development of GPS systems, a similar growth now follows for software systems. They are intended to manage and utilize data on the arable farm. Topcon is also stepping into that world with their TAP platform. How do you make sure you don't end up thirteenth in a dozen?
During the last Agritechnica, GPS specialist Topcon to come up with TAP. That stands for Topcon Agriculture Platform. A first version is now running as a test model in practice. Topcon's Dutch account manager for precision agriculture, Tim van der Leck, thinks TAP offers opportunities where other systems fail.
Complex systems
Every self-respecting GPS manufacturer now has software to manage data: move AB lines, import data, create maps and export them to your tractor. The disadvantage is that it often concerns complex systems. They are difficult to understand, even if you have a good dose of computer knowledge. Perhaps even more irritating is the impossibility of collaborating with third parties, although this is about to change. If 1 comma or letter is wrong, your self-made task card will soon be worthless.
"Where we can make the difference with TAP, is the user-friendliness", says Van der Leck. "Topcon is a strong supporter of the free exchange of data. For example, our GPS systems have been developed on the basis of Isobus and are therefore accessible to third parties. In our management system we use Iso XML and Shape files. These are the most adapted for example making task cards. It is not yet known how the exchange of AB lines with other brands will go."
Loose parts
There are a number of separate components under the TAP platform, not all of which are active yet. Not all of them are equally interesting for Dutch users. For the time being, TAP consists of:
- Mentor: manage fields and create task cards,
- Force: vehicle telematics via CAN bus (IoT),
- Drive: your account in the cloud, called Share,
- Horizon: the software of your GPS screen,
- Support: possibility to take over the driver's screen,
- Flight: making flight plans for drones,
- Spotlight: data processing of satellite and drone images,
- Surface: grading software.
Mentor is the most important application, which you work with most often as a farmer and contractor. The second category in particular has a need for telematics on their vehicles and also works with Force and Support for this. The Surface (for levelling) and Flight (for drones and satellites) functions are not yet active. Topcon is also launching a ninth feature: Explore; the mobile environment so that users do not have to navigate to their data on their phone or tablet via the browser.
telematics
Topcon tries to kill 2 birds with one stone with the software. It establishes a direct link with the Internet of Things (IoT). By mounting a modem in your tractor and connecting the system to the CAN bus, real-time data is collected and sent via the cloud. To do this, the modem moves from the roof module. Instead, it is mounted on the terminal. Telematics always requires GPS. Nice detail: by installing the AM1 modem you can also set up a second 'virtual' terminal on, for example, your tablet, and take it outside the cabin to run a seeder.
Several manufacturers are working on telematry options, but are developing this purely for their own brand. In the United States there are independent providers on the market that make it possible to read the functions of a tractor (fuel consumption, engine temperature and location determination). In the Netherlands this is especially interesting for contractors or very large agricultural companies. Abroad it is much more important to know where your machines and employees are.
Maximum return
Van der Leck thinks that Dutch arable farmers will use TAP in a different way. "Through the system they can monitor their crops and try to get the most out of the plant. That requires a different way of thinking, but that does not make it more difficult. The wishes per customer will differ. It is possible to grant third parties access, such as your cultivation advisor. This can be per plot or company-wide. In addition, TAP can collaborate with existing farm management programs of advising parties."
Since the Topcon Agriculutre Platform has not yet been officially launched, Topcon Positioning Netherlands (which recently started independently serving agriculture from their existing office) does not yet have TAP users in our country. No information has yet been released about the costs.
In the Mentor application you have an overview of all fields.
Niels van der Boom
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