NHDrive New Holland to hit the vines

New Holland has partnered with E&J Gallo Winery, a massive California-based firm that claims it's the largest family-owned winery in the world, to pilot an NHDrive-equipped autonomous T4.110F tractor.

New Holland says the objective of the deployment is to gather agronomic and operator feedback on the use of autonomous tractor technology in everyday vineyard activities, to further hone its autonomous vehicle program.

The company unveiled its NHDrive autonomous solution in 2017 at a number of Australian field days and, to date, has previewed it on the T7 Heavy Duty and T8 tractor ranges, illustrating possible row crop applications. The new pilot program with the T4.110F demonstrates that New Holland’s autonomous solution is applicable to the brand's entire range of tractors, from high horsepower row crop all the way through to its specialty ranges.

Carlo Lambro, New Holland Agriculture Brand President, said autonomous technology had the potential to significantly streamline all sorts of agricultural applications.

"Sustainability and innovation are in New Holland's DNA: that's how we help our customers to farm efficiently and profitably today, and anticipate the way their needs will change," he said.

"We believe that specialty operations, and in particular those in the vineyard environment, could significantly benefit from the introduction of autonomous technology, in terms of productivity and sustainability.

"Our partner in the pilot program, E&J Gallo Winery, shares our commitment to innovation and sustainability in viticulture, as well as our objective of providing an autonomous solution that will benefit winegrowers around the world."

The pilot program is taking place in an E&J Gallo Winery vineyard in California, USA, with T4.110F tractors fitted with NHDrive autonomous technology. During the course of the initial research and development program, further progress has been made into the integration of the various component parts – specifically the sensing and perception elements and the signal receivers. As such, the T4.110F NHDrive maintains its sleek overall silhouette.

This pilot is focused on a full range of vineyard maintenance and crop production tasks, which will provide feedback to further develop these activities during autonomous operation. These often repetitive applications represent a broad cross-section of activities that are undertaken in vineyards, and are also representative of those carried out by the wider agricultural community, said New Holland.

The data generated during the pilot will enrich the New Holland Autonomous Vehicle Program, providing real-world detail on the full range of possible automated and autonomous applications. These include Operator Assisted Autonomy, where the NHDrive supports the operator in the cab, Supervised Autonomy, where the operator will be in the field and supervises unmanned vehicles, and ultimately Full Autonomy, with no local supervision.