Raven accelerates development on the path to agricultural autonomy

Farmers are looking to do more with less available resources. With the pressure to produce more to sustain a growing world population, farming today is driven by efficiency. Rising input costs and labor constraints in today’s market cause technology to play a critical role in saving resources and maximizing every minute in the field.

Autonomy is the ultimate solution to the productivity problems that farmers are facing since it allows them to reallocate labor resources to cover more acres in a day with less errors. However, there are a lot of variables to manage in each operation, making 'robot farming' challenging. Raven, a brand of CNH Industrial, specializes in developing cutting-edge innovation that solves farming’s complex challenges. Recognizing the complexity of full farm automation, the company is committed to helping farmers progress on what it calls the 'Path to Autonomy'.

The Path to Autonomy is a journey that farmers undertake to gain efficiencies, save time, and increase yields by incorporating stages of precision technology into their operations. To explain why autonomy in agriculture is labeled as a 'path' and not an 'on/off switch', it is helpful to compare driverless farming implements to driverless cars.

A sprayer is far more complex than a car. Can you imagine driving your car, but with two 20ft arms extending from the sides – on the narrowest country road? This is like the experience of driving a sprayer in a field – it’s a lot to manage. This is why technology that takes care of even one of those many variables – for example, VSN Visual Guidance, which automatically keeps the sprayer aligned with its crop rows – is tremendously helpful for an operator.

Driverless farming implements, therefore, require more than driverless cars – in addition to AI-based perception and propulsion, the machine needs to monitor chemical applications, GPS-based guidance (with sub-inch precision), and more. There’s simply too much to manage manually – which is why full 'robot' agriculture doesn’t practically exist today. However, for it to exist in the future, it needs to be built on the foundation of precision.

A fully autonomous, or driverless, solution for farmers is made up of a precision agriculture technology network that takes care of all the variables of everyday application. Farmers can also gain efficiencies today and prepare for autonomy by advancing their automated technological capabilities with precision technology. The Path to Autonomy is a more holistic, realistic approach to building the most efficient operation possible today with the attainable goal of a fully automated farm in the long-term.