Autonomous Off Road

I have been researching autonomous ag equipment for a while now and figured others would be interested and have knowledge. Ag equipment is usually just low speed off road equipment but the military has funded high speed equipment and that is trickling into ag. After KOH 2025 the presence of data collection in the cars and uploading while racing is a clear indicator that the tech is near. It might not be what most think AI or autonomous looks like but with drivers not being able to follow routes and checkpoints we might be seeing AI helping them. Live valve is a clear example of AI giving an advantage in vehicle control.

World Ag Expo 2025 in Tulare CA had a lot of AI and RC robots, tractors, drones, UTVs, as well as data collection and software to interpret data.

Levels of autonomy are difficult to measure based on applications.
Some are simply RC unmanned, line of sight or camera to remote screen.
Some can follow a planned GPS route.
Some can use vision to verify location without GPS.
Some can use accelerometers to stay on track until being corrected by GPS.
Some can drive around obstacles while others will stop and notify they cannot continue.
Some can determine obstacle passing without a bypass route.

Processing power is a big part to the ability. Ranging from a 30K small electric robot to 500K high speed UTV.
Multiple cameras in multiple spectrums need to be processed quickly in order to generate a 3D world for the vehicle to determine where it’s at and where it is supposed to be and react quickly to stay on course.

Data can be processed on board or sent to the cloud for processing which greatly effects remote correction or instant driving action. It doesn’t take much data to outrun the radio to cellular to cloud and back bandwidth.

I don't know anything other than I machine parts for one of the companies that were at the show. They have some cool fully autonomous modular "tractors"

Something something rc killdozer

From what I've seen/ watched farmers are saying **** you to JD etc blocking actual interventions and proprietary BS locking them out of their own tractors/ combines etc.

Here is an old Carnegie Robotics test UTV.
This is not a current production and has much more than is needed.
The tan box is a server rack style super computer liquid cooled with a radiator and fan. IIRC it can process about 8 TB of data up to 10 minutes before needing to be offloaded.
Has electro hydraulic braking, shifting, steering, and a full size alternator driven off the engine.

my Dad had an autonomous tractor back in the 1980's/90's

It was Ford 8700 with a kid who was just barely able to reach the clutch.

Worked out great for him

Yes...but

It seems like in the world of agriculture crops have narrow windows for processing. Schedules cannot be broken.

Not a great application for more complexity, relying on dealers, more breakdowns, etc.

If anything they should be advocating for emissions exemption and trying to make them simpler.

Winchested said:

From what I've seen/ watched farmers are saying **** you to JD etc blocking actual interventions and proprietary BS locking them out of their own tractors/ combines etc.

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More than one person said JD is way behind the industry in autonomy. They are trying to retrofit new and old tractors with repurposed existing inventory to aid in supply chain and new part development. They are also able to remove a possible bad bolt on AI upgrade and return the tractor to a usable capacity then upgrade again with an updated kit. This will help prevent upsetting the market with a AI tractor that has built in flaws that are hard to remove.
In comparison some tractors are ground up AI and full electric with no seat.
That being said JD is partnered with many AI companies that are up to date.
I’m sure they have a whole marketing plan and are waiting as they follow customers emotions and expectations and financials.
Dealers locking out owners is nothing new, phones, cars, computers, tractors. The reason we can all run engine swaps is because someone developed software to jailbreak the devices.

I'd say depends on farm size. Where I live avg farm is 100-150 acres... Notike the prairies where the farms are 500-2000+ acres.

bigtoy302 said:

I don't know anything other than I machine parts for one of the companies that were at the show. They have some cool fully autonomous modular "tractors"

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Amos was probably the coolest full electric tractor but the autonomy was on par with most everyone else. The Amos fabricated tractor design is nothing like the cast tractors of the past 100 years. Lots of laser plate and welded assemblies.

HYDRODYNAMIC said:

Here is an old Carnegie Robotics test UTV.
This is not a current production and has much more than is needed.
The tan box is a server rack style super computer liquid cooled with a radiator and fan. IIRC it can process about 8 TB of data up to 10 minutes before needing to be offloaded.
Has electro hydraulic braking, shifting, steering, and a full size alternator driven off the engine.

Click to expand...

If they need some roll cage design input, we have some experts on another thread.

Winchested said:

From what I've seen/ watched farmers are saying **** you to JD etc blocking actual interventions and proprietary BS locking them out of their own tractors/ combines etc.

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Those are real, small family farmers....the big corporate farming operations want this tech and can actually afford it. Just another thing squeezing out locally owned/grown food supplies. Not a goodness thing long term, IMO.

Had a Ranger UTV come in a while back with some odd electronics and an aftermarket steering wheel/column. Figured out it was some type of GPS based autonomous setup for spraying.

redneckK20s said:

Had a Ranger UTV come in a while back with some odd electronics and an aftermarket steering wheel/column. Figured out it was some type of GPS based autonomous setup for spraying.

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Cruise control GPS steering to keep a repeatable straight line is an easy to retrofit upgrade for autonomy. It is old and common enough that nock off import vendors have kits for sale.

HYDRODYNAMIC said:

Cruise control GPS steering to keep a repeatable straight line is an easy to retrofit upgrade for autonomy. It is old and common enough that nock off import vendors have kits for sale.

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We put that on a few of our tractors starting back in 2009. Utilizes satellite GPS as well as a cell phone signal to drive in a straight line with up to sub inch accuracy. Nothing really fancy, just plugs into the electric over hydraulic circuit on the tractor and takes over the hydraulic steering when you hit a button.

The idea we had behind it was to be able to plant the corn seeds directly on top of the anhydrous ammonia slot.

It also allows for greater efficiency while doing tillage. You can drive with minimal overlap the whole day and not leave strips or overlap too much like can happen driving manually. The technology was around 10-15k back then. Every family farm around us has it in some form or another.

But it doesn't utilize any actual input from sensors or anything like that, so it would drive you straight into a ditch or building if you aren't paying attention.