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CES 2021 REVIEW
Automation, AI Sow the Seeds of Farming Future

By Anne-Françoise Pelé

arming is as old as civilization itself and has journeyed through
numerous revolutions over the centuries. Today, autonomous
vehicles and artificial intelligence are marking the dawn of the
F next agricultural revolution. In a spotlight session at CES 2021,
Illinois-based machinery producer John Deere described how farmers
are embracing the latest technologies to maximize crop yields, profit-
ability, and a sustainable business model.
CES has become the transportation exhibition that sets the tone for
the new year. OEMs and carmakers showcase innovations for electric,
self-driving, and advanced driver-assistance systems, and for the third
consecutive year, John Deere has rallied the community with AI-
powered combine harvesters and sensor-fueled planters.
“Every day, as farmers go to the field across the world, they are
leveraging technologies like GPS, connectivity, computer vision, and
machine learning to make sure they can sustainably grow the food that With self-driving tractors, John Deere aims to shift some of the detail
everybody eats,” said Deanna Kovar, vice president of production and work from the farmer to the machinery, freeing farmers to concentrate
precision agriculture production at John Deere, in the CES session. on their business priorities. Automated farm equipment is also about
making the whole farming operation more effective and productive.
OPERATING AUTONOMOUSLY With John Deere’s AutoTrack steering system, the farmer can enter the
The concept of fully autonomous agricultural vehicles is far from field, get started, and never touch the steering wheel the entire time
new. “We’ve had self-driving tractors for almost 20 years,” said Jahmy the field is being planted, according to Kovar.
Hindman, chief technology officer for John Deere. “It’s really import- John Deere’s 16-row 1775NT planter, presented at CES 2021, is a
ant, especially for row crops, to plant the rows in a very straight way to “robot with a ton of automation, leveraging GPS to make sure we know
make sure we have equal distance between rows.” where every seed is placed,” she added. Equipped with 300 sensors and
GPS-enabled self-driving tractors and self-propelled equipment 140 controllers, the planter is claimed to plant 100 seeds per second in
confer an additional level of accuracy to the farming operation, and a corn operation or a couple of hundred seeds in a soybean operation at
John Deere said it augments that GPS signal with a real-time kinematic 10 mph. “Eighty years ago, a farmer would have planted 30 acres a day;
(RTK) system that provides pass-to-pass accuracy of ±1 inch. “Our GPS they can now plant 500,” Kovar said.
technologies have the ability to get us to within 2.5 cm of accuracy,” Hindman noted that every row unit is controlled electrically “to
whereas cellphones get to within roughly 5 meters, said Kovar. make sure we can precisely grab the seed and then deliver it to the
John Deere acquired NavCom Technologies back in 1999. It now has ground in a very precise way. Then we need to make sure it’s at the
its own satellite correction system and ground-based correction sites right depth within the soil. If it’s too deep, it may take too long to
all over the world “to make sure GPS positioning receivers can not only emerge. If it’s too shallow, it may not have as much moisture as it needs
get the planter row unit within 2.5 cm of accuracy but can also come to germinate. We have to positionally locate that seed very accurately IMAGES: JOHN DEERE
back weeks or months later and get to the exact same spot, all through and do that across 36,000 seeds per acre in a typical corn operation or
satellite correction,” said Kovar. 80,000 seeds per acre in a soybean operation.”
With self-driving cars, the driver shifts over to the passenger’s seat. Precision planting at high speed and on a large scale is essential

www.eetimes.eu | FEBRUARY 2021