Artificial Intelligence for unmanned harvesters has been tested in Russia’s Belgorod Region. Operating autonomously, the machine could harvest cereals at 60 hectares.
The universal smart device enabling unmanned operation of harvesters, tractors and other farming machinery, was named agrodroid. It was designed by Russia’s Cognitive Technologies and demonstrated for the first time in June 2018.
According to Yuri Minkin, Director of Unmanned Vehicles Development Department, an agrodroid-equipped harvester had to undergo a number of real life tests, such as night-time operations, working in a heavy dust concentration environment (caused by other machinery operating nearby), functioning at 25-degree slopes.
The tests proved that agrodroid is capable to keep machinery within the plowed/unplowed division lines, make u-turns at the end of a field, operate after dark, reload harvest into a tanker or a truck, ensure safety for staff and machinery.
A relatively low price of the Russian solution is its competitive advantage accomplished by replacing expensive equipment with a computer vision system which only requires a single video camera.
According to Olga Uskova, President of Cognitive Technologies, some preorders for agrodroids have already been received from Argentina, China, and Brazil.
The successful test now allows Cognitive Technologies enter the global market of pilotless systems for farming machinery which is assessed at almost $100 bln. Within the next three to five years Russian designers will claim at least 15% of that market.