Autonomous tractors and precision agriculture.

Precision agriculture has is a management system that is information and technology-based, is site specific, and uses one or more of the following sources of data: soils, crops, nutrients, pests, moisture, or yield for optimum profitability, sustainability, and protection of the environment. Autonomous, or operator-less technology, has found usefulness as a tool in precision agriculture. Autonomous tractors have increasingly found usefulness in material handling systems used in factories and slowly finding acceptance in automotive vehicle lane in agriculture. The self-driving models from manufacturers such as Tesla and Google – offer varying degrees of reduced operator input. Autonomous Tractor Corporation (ATC), headquartered in Fargo, ND, has introduced AutoDrive, a patented navigation system that combines GPS technology with two individual on-ground validation systems. At the heart of AutoDrive is ATC’s Laser-Radio Navigation System (LRNS), a Local Area Network (LAN) system based on Radio Frequency (RF) technology that utilizes artificial intelligence (IA) to “train” the tractor to do repetitive tasks without programming. AutoDrive is trained to perform the task just as the farmer does. when AutoDrive becomes proficient at that task and suitably trusted, slowly more tasks can be introduced. The parent farmer has no more trust for an autonomous tractor then for a son or daughter until a certain level of trust is developed over time. For safety, AutoDrive comes with a sonar-based detection system that will immediately bring the tractor to a halt when an object is detected 30’ away. When this occurs, a text is sent to the owner, who through two pan-tilt cameras can remotely access what has happened. Read