Precision Farming by Self-Learning Autonomous Tractor

21 September 2011

A farmer working in the field for hours on his tractor... Maybe this will be history soon! Flanders' Mechatronics Technology Centre (FMTC) in collaboration with the Department of Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS) of the Leuven University (Belgium), converted a New Holland tractor into an autonomous driving field robot. This tractor learns the soil characteristics and, with this knowledge, adjusts his speed and steering angle. In this way the tractor is able to work very accurately on a desired track, without a driver.

Can a tractor without a driver work on a field accuraty? That was the question that researchers of FMTC and MeBioS in 2009 were faced with. Two years later, a prototype is available, which will be introduced on the 30th International Equipment Day on September 24 and 25, 2011 in Oudenaarde, Belgium.

To see the tractor in action have a look at the movie that you can download here, showing how the developed autonomous tractor acts in the field.

More information:
A pdf is also available here (in Dutch).
Or see the newsitem on the website of the University of Leuven (in Dutch).