John Deere has revealed a fully autonomous tractor that it says is ready for large-scale production, with its release planned for later this year.
John Deere, which unveiled the machine in Las Vegas on Tuesday (4 January), said the tractor served a specific purpose - feeding the world.
According to the US machinery firm, it combines Deere's 8R Tractor, TruSet™-enabled chisel plow, GPS guidance system, and new advanced technologies.
It has six pairs of stereo cameras, which enables 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.
This determines if the machine continues to move or stops, depending on if an obstacle is detected.
The tractor also continuously checks its position relative to a geofence, ensuring it is operating where it is supposed to, and is accurate to within less than 1 inch.
To use the tractor, John Deere says 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.
The tractor was unveiled during a press conference at Las Vegas tech event CES 2022 on Tuesday (4 January).
