Autonomous Equipment in Agriculture: What Are the Challenges?
Paul Welbig (left), Director of Business Development, Raven Industries, discusses the future of of autonomy in agriculture at Tech Hub LIVE 2022 in Indianapolis, IN. Welbig was part of a panel for the session “Autonomous Equipment: What are the Challenges?” that also included Kaleb Bowman, Director of Operations, Agtegra (middle), and Cory Spaetti, Director, Agriculture Engineering, Sabanto.
The quest continues for the “Holy Grail” of autonomy — unmanned 24/7 operation of equipment – but we are getting closer to that goal and the labor shortage is driving it faster than ever.
Scott Shearer, Agricultural Engineering Professor and Chair at Ohio State University, moderated a panel at Tech Hub LIVE 2022 about where we are in the autonomous equipment development and what are the challenges for adoption. Panelists were Paul Welbig, Director of Business Development, Raven Industries; Cory Spaetti, Director, Agriculture Engineering, Sabanto; and Kaleb Bowman, Director of Operations, Agtegra.
Welbig outlined five levels on the path to autonomy:
- Level 1 – Precision Farming Technology
- Level 2 – Coordination and Optimization
- Level 3 – Operator Assisted Autonomy
- Level 4 – Supervised Autonomy
- Level 5 – Full Autonomy
Welbig said the industry is currently focused around levels three and four today. “In my 25-plus career in agriculture, this is the most exciting time I’ve seen,” he said. Raven, which became part of CNH Industrial at the end of last year, launched OMNiPOWER 3200 the latest model of its autonomous power platform in March 2022.
Sabanto is a Chicago-based robotic farming company with a fleet of autonomous tractors for hire in the Midwest and now moving into retrofitting tractors. “We’re creating a new kind of operator by adapting old tractors for autonomy,” said Spaetti. The company also trains farmers how to remotely operate the autonomous equipment.
While some might wonder how practical 24 operation of farm equipment would be, Spaetti says he is seeing a shift to that concept in some cases where cultivating at night when the ground is cool and moist makes sense.
Lack of qualified labor is the number one driver for autonomy in the agricultural industry and Bowman said Agtegra Cooperative located in the Dakotas is more than willing to make that investment to solve that problem. He talked about how autonomy can help them with throughput, consistency, and efficiency when one operator can run two machines in the field. He believes it also helps attract and retain more skilled applicators.
Overall, the panel did not seem to see much in the way of barriers to adoption of autonomous equipment when it comes to connectivity. “In the U.S., connectivity is pretty good now,” said Welbig. However, Spaetti noted that use of private cellular networks in some cases may be inevitable.
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