Tech startup company Sabanto displayed an M5 Kubota tractor equipped with its autonomy conversion kit at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show at Woodstock, Ont. in September. But the company was willing to do more than just show off the modified tractor at its booth in order to introduce it to potential customers.
The Chicago-area company was willing to take the tractor out to farms, let farmers try it and see for themselves if an autonomous tractor could fit into their operation.
“We like to just bring it out, put it on the farm and see how it works, show growers how to run it and see what they can do with it, if it fits their operation,” Sabanto field application engineer Alex Valdez says.
Read Also
Deere’s Tier 4 engines get B30 upgrade
John Deere has just announced it is increasing the biodiesel approval rating on its Final Tier 4 diesel engines from B20 to B30.
The M5 is a utility-class tractor with limited horsepower, so the range of jobs it can do are limited — but that may be the best way to introduce farmers to the concept of autonomy, according to Sabanto’s CEO and founder Craig Rupp.
“I’ll be a realist. I’m not going to paint some rosy picture of a farmer not even having to go outside. I don’t think autonomy is an all-or-nothing proposition. There are certain operations that are still going to have to be done manually into the short and mid-term.”
Start simple
Rupp’s plan for Sabanto is to start by tackling the simple jobs that can most easily be handled autonomously and move on to more complex tasks as the system is refined over time with experience.
It’s an approach others hoping to provide autonomous farming systems to the market have said they embrace, too.
WATCH THIS: Conversion kit makes conventional tractors autonomous
“Right now I’m focused on reducing labour. My goal right now is to start with the mundane and work toward improving it and getting better and better. As a startup, we have to refine, improve and fix problems.”
For simple jobs that require more horsepower, Sabanto does offer conversion kits for larger models, like the 700 series Fendts. The Sabanto system is now compatible with 19 different models from three brands: Kubota, Fendt and John Deere.
“It’s a fairly easy-to-install system,” Valdez says. “It takes about a day to put on. There isn’t anything that takes the tractor out of factory settings. We tie into existing systems. Through that we’re able to get telemetry data off the tractor. On some tractors we have actuators for brakes and hydraulic hitch control. But we use GPS and our own proprietary software to generate tractor paths that will allow the tractor to do all types of field work.”
The company’s Path Planner operational software is fully customizable, allowing the user to set specific field tasks as needed.
“We’re able to monitor it remotely through our user interface,” Valdez adds.” It will generate a path and display it. You can even hit like a playback that will demonstrate the path the tractor is taking. When everything is to your liking, you can establish that as a mission to the tractor and send it on its way.
But if farmers want to have someone else monitor and set the autonomous tractor to work, Sabanto now offers a service to do exactly that, too.
Off-site oversight
“The newest thing is we have what we call virtual field operators,” Rupp says. “These are our people that are an extension of some of the farming operations we’re working with.
“The people at the farming operation park the tractor in a field. Her (the field operator’s) responsibility is deploying the system, monitoring it, moving it from field to field. Right now she watches over about 12 systems at once, and five farming operations.”
The tractors don’t need to be constantly watched as they work; they simply need someone to be able to respond to messages from it and arrange to get it to do what the farmer wants at the right time.
That also means a farmer or farm manager can go home for the evening and be sure a tractor operating after the normal workday is over will still be monitored.
READ ALSO: Will very-high-horsepower tractors go extinct?
“In the markets we’re in now, we found when they leave the farm, they’re done for the day,” says Rupp. “With the promise of 24/7 (operation), when they go home at night they’re preoccupied. So I have people that are working with farming operations and performing those tasks.”
Most of the systems Sabanto has working now use cellular networks to communicate with the person monitoring them. However, other types of communications, such as satellite links, can be used.
As for which types of operations are most compatible with autonomy, Rupp says at the moment it’s likely those that require a large number of work hours at fairly simple jobs — which is why the company started off in the sod farm industry. Growers there have to cut the grass every two or three days, requiring hundreds of operating hours every season.
“It’s a great beachhead market for us to get hours and acres. They’re out in the field every day. And every day we get another touchpoint to improve our product. Now we’re looking at going after the hay and forage industry. There are some hay operations that are doing 10 cuts a year.”
GPS Ontario currently handles Canadian sales for Sabanto.
