At the 2022 Ag in Motion farm show in Langham, Sask., a small startup company called Mojow Autonomous Solutions was demonstrating its evolving self-driving system, which was intended to work with production tractors and allow them to run without operators in the cab. It had a self-driving MFWD tractor running on a demonstration course using the company’s Eyebox Autonomous Navigation Controller.
This year, Mojow was again showing an autonomous tractor driving itself around a demonstration area, but this time the autonomous tractor was a high-horsepower Versatile DeltaTrack, and it followed a major announcement from Versatile that it had formally partnered with Mojow to create an autonomous, production-ready tractor.
- AgDealerTV: Versatile, Mojow collaborate on autonomy
“They’ve been working with us for several months now, and this is the first time we’ve publicly announced we’re working with them,” Adam Reid, vice-president of sales and marketing at Versatile, told Grainews. “We have an autonomous tractor option. It’s not commercially available yet, but it will be at some point.”
“We are working directly with a resourceful team of engineers from Versatile who are experts on the inner workings of their tractor lineup,” says Mojow president, Owen Kinch. “This relationship will streamline integration for quick turnaround to market viability.”
Read Also
Vintage power on display at Saskatchewan tractor pull
At the Ag in Motion farm show held earlier this year near Langham, Sask., a vintage tractor pull event drew pretty significant crowds of show goers, who were mostly farmers.
That ability to accelerate development of an autonomous tractor and turn it into a market-ready product is exactly how Versatile sees the partnership advantage as well. Reid expects it will help Versatile come to market with an autonomous tractor in a much shorter time frame than if the brand tried to develop the technology on its own.
“If we were to try and create our own autonomy department, it would take millions and millions of dollars and a decade or so,” he says. “We went out into the market and looked at who was doing autonomy and what they were doing. We really wanted to find someone that matched our philosophy, which is, of course, with tractors, simple, reliable and easy to service and maintain. That has been our hallmark for years. We wanted to find a partner who understood that.”
Reid believes they found that with Mojow.
Kinch told Grainews that Mojow’s approach to working with Versatile has been simplified from the initial broad range of goals it had before entering into the partnership. For example, having a tractor able to perform a number of complex functions, including set up implements in the field on its own. Focusing, instead, on basic autonomous operation should simplify the approach for both teams of engineers and help get a commercial system market ready sooner.
While an autonomous Versatile tractor is likely still a few years away from being commercially available, both Versatile and Mojow wanted to show the project to farmers, so it brought the autonomous concept DeltaTrack to AIM.
“We really wanted to be able to introduce at least the concept,” says Reid. “Largely to prove we are still viable, we are staying up on technology and we’re finding partners to help us get there. At Versatile, we aren’t known for cutting-edge technology, but we are known for partnering with people who have the best.
“When we partnered with Mojow, we liked their philosophy. Because they’re small, they’re a lot more nimble, and we’re kind of the same way.”
Mojow advantage
One advantage Mojow brought to the table that other tech firms didn’t was it was working on integrating autonomous operation into production tractors that used mechanical transmissions, rather than the easier integration with a CVT.
“A lot of the autonomy companies we talked to are very much interested and doing a CVT,” Reid adds. “We have the Nemesis line that has a CVT, but really to get to the powershift model for us was a really big deal. We have the Cummins engine and Cat (powershift) transmission. I really don’t see us going away from that combination anytime soon. To have Mojow develop autonomy on a tractor with a powershift transmission, for us that’s huge. To the best of my knowledge, they’re really the first ones to do it.
“Basically, the whole philosophy is we’re trying to keep it as simple as possible from an installation and operations standpoint.”
The Mojow autonomous integration is just one of two cutting-edge technology projects Versatile has partnered on. In 2022, it and Cummins announced those two brands would begin working together to develop a purpose-built, hydrogen-powered, high-horsepower tractor.
The tractor will use a modified 15-litre Cummins diesel built into a tractor that is able to accommodate the unconventional fuel.
“That partnership we announced last summer,” says Reid. “We’re the off-highway partner for Cummins on the hydrogen side of things.
“We’ve been working with institutions in Winnipeg, such as the city of Winnipeg, that have hydrogen infrastructure they’re working on already. So, we’re learning what the industry is doing alongside that.
“It’s not just learning what infrastructure is required to build the tractor, it’s learning what infrastructure our dealers and farmers are going to need if this becomes available.”
