Deere autonomous tractor to be available in 2022

This year is shaping up to be one of John Deere’s most exciting yet as it prepares to commercialise its autonomous tractor.

Officially unveiled at one of the biggest tech and electronics show in the world, CES 2022, the tractor combines Deere's 8R tractor, TruSet-enabled chisel plow, GPS guidance system, and new advanced technologies.

John Deere said the autonomous machine has been designed to help solve challenges farmers are facing in the field including labour shortages, rapidly increasing demand for food and fibre and more.

"The world's population is expected to grow from about 8 billion to nearly 10 billion people by 2050, increasing the global food demand by 50 per cent," said John Deere Chief Technology Officer, Jahmy Hindman at John Deere’s CES 2022 press conference.

"Farmers must feed this growing world population, and it's our job at John Deere to help them. The future of Agriculture starts now!"

The autonomous tractor uses AI similar to spot spraying systems like Agrifac’s AiCPlus to help the tractor ‘make decisions’ in the absence of a driver in the cab.

It features six pairs of stereo cameras that enable 360-degree obstacle detection and the calculation of distance. Images captured by the cameras are passed through a deep neural network that classifies each pixel in approximately 100 milliseconds and determines if the machine continues to move or stops, depending on if an obstacle is detected.

The autonomous tractor is also continuously checking its position relative to a geofence, ensuring it is operating where it is supposed to, and is within less than an inch of accuracy.

To use the autonomous tractor, farmers only need to transport the machine to a field and configure it for autonomous operation. Using John Deere Operations Center Mobile, they can swipe from left to right to start the machine. While the machine is working, the farmer can leave the field to focus on other tasks, while monitoring the machine's status from their mobile device.

John Deere Operations Center Mobile also provides access to live video, images, data and metrics, and allows a farmer to adjust speed, depth and more. In the event of any job quality anomalies or machine health issues, farmers will be notified so they can make the necessary adjustments to optimise the performance of the machine.

John Deere said the autonomous tractor unveiled at CES 2022 is ready for large scale production and that it will be available for farmers later this year.