Driverless Tractors Ready For Market

Driverless Tractors Ready For Market TRACTORS Miscellaneous You can give your tractor a driverless option with Auto-Drive from Autonomous Tractor Corporation ATC It is the latest version of ATC’s “driverless tractor”
concept we first featured 3 years ago in Vol 36 No 5 Named the Spirit it was going to be a lower cost driverless alternative t o conventional tractors However feedback from farmers started the company down a different road says Terry Anderson
vice president System Design ATC
“Farmers told us they wanted a way to make their own tractor driverless with the option of driving it when they wanted ” says Anderson “They also wanted a way to retrofit older tractors with new engines and drives as well as better implement control ” ATC has addressed these requests with 3 separate products Auto-Drive is designed to retrofit existing tractors sooperators can change to driverless not just auto-steer with the flick of a switch It uses a combination laser and radio
positioning system to provide accurate location data Its FieldSmart artificial intelligence software provides tractor system management The operator quickly trains the tractor a driver A failsafe system will shut down and notify the operator if it senses a problem
E-Drive is ATC’s high horsepower tractor retrofi t Designed for 200 to 600 hp tractors the E-Drive package replaces the conventional engine transmission differential and axles
It includes 1 or 2 diesel generators 2 or 4 electric variable speed wheel motors as well as a joystick control and a system display The joystick provides direction speed and implement control
“We estimate the E-Drive system is 10 to 20 percent more fuel efficient than a mechanized drive system and has a longer service life than the OEM system ” says Anderson
IMS is ATC’s answer to the need for implement control It is a monitoring control and management system that allows an implement to be used with ATC’s Auto-Drive system and its FieldSmart AI software It can be adapted to almost any implement with the software used to detect problems
Auto-Drive is the initial product to be introduced It is beingn sold directly to farmers in beta packages for approximately$30 000

“We will be hosting a field day this summer to launchthe final product and to introduce farmers to E-Drive and IMS ” says Anderson “We are in discussions with a major equipment retailer for distribution and installation ”
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Autonomous Tractor Corporation 4302 13th Ave S Fargo N Dak 58103 ph 701 429-3964; spirit@autonomoustractor com

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