The project claims to be the largest deployment of tractor autonomy kits in the agricultural industry

Scarlett Evans, Assistant Editor, IoT World Today

March 20, 2023

1 Min Read
Fleet of tractors outfitted with Fieldin autonomy kits equipped with an Ouster OS1 sensor. (Photo: Business Wire)

A wide-scale project to retrofit lidar technology to hundreds of tractors to enable autonomous navigation and operation is underway.

Lidar company Ouster and AgTech group Fieldin are aiming to deploy more than 100 autonomy retrofit kits on tractors throughout the U.S. this year, with several hundred additional sensors expected to be added through 2024.

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According to the partners, the project marks the largest deployment of retrofit autonomy kits for autonomous tractors in the agricultural industry.

The autonomy kit features several capabilities, including auto-steering, autonomous spraying and fully autonomous driver-out functionality. Ouster’s OS1 sensors provide vehicle localization, navigation and object detection, while Fieldin’s autonomous solutions provide real-time data on crops and farm machinery, to help improve decision-making, productivity and transparency.

“Agricultural equipment operates rain or shine, in fluctuating temperatures and dusty environments and through narrow aisles of crops completing a variety of routine tasks from spraying and harvesting to mowing,” said Fieldin chief autonomy officer Yonatan Horovitz. “Fieldin is modernizing agricultural management from beginning to end to optimize operations and reduce costs while making a positive global contribution through better food, higher yields, and environmental impact management.

“To achieve this at scale, we needed a lidar sensor for our autonomy kit that was robust, reliable and cost-effective.”

Fieldin has installed more than 10,000 IoT devices on agricultural machinery in the “three largest markets for fruit, nuts, and vegetables” and plans to upgrade each of these installations with its autonomy kits.

About the Author(s)

Scarlett Evans

Assistant Editor, IoT World Today

Scarlett Evans is the assistant editor for IoT World Today, with a particular focus on robotics and smart city technologies. Scarlett has previous experience in minerals and resources with Mine Australia, Mine Technology and Power Technology. She joined Informa in April 2022.

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