AUTO guidance has put you in the driver’s seat (excuse the pun) in understanding autonomous vehicles.
Wi-fi-enabled iPads apps have expanded that knowledge for section control and variable rate seeding.
And now Case IH has unveiled how you will turn an autonomous vehicle at a headland.
Called AccuTurn, it takes the guess work out of turning on headlands, providing a precise turn that doesn’t stress the operator or machinery because it’s turning at the optimum speed.
AccuTurn is software logic from the Case IH Autonomous Concept Vehicle (ACV), unveiled last year.
Refreshing your memory, the ACV is a cabless Case IH row crop tractor that can operate autonomously with a wide range of paddock implements.
It can move around the farm on private roads and follows a pre-set route.
An alert lets the operator know if inputs such as fuel, or fertiliser or seed are low, so they can plot a path to a re-fuelling point, where inputs are topped up manually.
The refuelled ACV then returns to the last area worked, and resumes. Through the use of radar, lidar (light imaging, detection, and ranging) and onboard video cameras, the vehicle can sense stationary or moving obstacles in its path and will stop on its own until the operator, notified by audio and visual alerts, assigns a new path.
The ACV can be controlled either via a desktop computer or a portable handheld tablet.
In a recent demonstration at Wongan Hills, local Case IH dealer Boekeman Machinery equipped a Case IH 550HD Steiger 4WD tractor with AccuTurn to see how it would handle pulling a 18.2m (60ft) DBS and a 19,500 litre Ausplow Multistream.
And to the delight of Boekeman’s precision farming specialist Peter Crippen, who took a turn driving the tractor, the AccuTurn provided a faultless display.
“Setting up your boundaries is the key,” he said. “But that’s all you do.
“Based on your input regarding the width it is pulling, it automatically figures out the optimum turning path based on current ground speed.
“With the increasing trend towards tramline farming, I can see this bit of gear will attract a lot of interest, particularly because it can be retro-fitted to all Case IH tractors equipped with Accuguide and Pro700.
“Operators always struggle to get turns right, particularly if you’re dealing with angle turns in irregular-shaped paddocks.
“The path-planning logic obviously is a critical feature of an autonomous vehicle but farmers won’t have to wait for one to get a hold of the technology.
According to Case IH, the benefits of AccuTurn include:
Seamlessly navigating the tightest turns and position the tractor and implement into the next pass. The industry-exclusive Auto-speed feature provides automatic turn-path planning that adapts to each operation’s speed, including maximum-turn-speed alerts.
Precise product application to manage and control inputs, reducing inconsistencies seen through manual steering with seeding rigs or fertiliser spreaders.
Multiple modes of operation: Two intuitive settings – ‘Automatic’ and ‘Turn Now’ – allow operators to customise the level of automation to their application at hand, from tillage and side-dressing to planting and seeding.
Flexibility for skip pass or pass-to-pass capabilities. Easily adapts to broadacre or row-crop applications for increased efficiencies and productivity.
Reduced operator strain, especially when pulling increasingly larger and longer seeding rigs.
Ken Wilson
Farm Weekly's machinery writer.
Farm Weekly's machinery writer.
