PHOTO: SEEDMASTER
AUTONOMOUS TRACTORS ▶▶▶
Autonomous tractor to revolutionise field work
The lead in the race for a driver-free, super-efficient arable farming utopia has been taken up by SeedMaster – a little known name in the world of autonomous agriculture but with grand plans to revolutionise life in (or rather, out of) the tractor seat.
BY OLIVER MARK I
t’s called Dot and is an offshoot of the firm that made its name building mammoth drills and seed carts in the heart of the Canadian prairies. The robotised rig was
created by SeedMaster chief Norbert Beaujot, who set about the challenge of getting a driver- less tractor into mainstream production back in 2014. His design looks nothing like a normal tractor – instead it takes the form of a U-shaped tool carrier with the engine and hydraulic driveline sitting in lopsided fashion along one part of a three-sided frame.
Why Dot? Canada, like many first-world nations, is suffer- ing from a chronic lack of skilled farming la- bour as potential employees ditch the tractor
Specifications
Engine: Cummins QSB4.5 Tier 4F 4.5-litre turbocharged diesel Power: 173 hp @ 2,200 rpm Torque: 705 Nm @ 1,500rpm Top speed: 19 km/h Auxiliary hydraulic pump: 230 litres/min @ 207 bar Dry weight: 5,670 kg Carrying capacity: 18,000 kg Transport width: 3.76 m Transport length: 6.1m Height: 3.66 m Fuel tank: 320 litres Continuous run time: 10-14 hours Standard tyres: 500/70 R24 Price expected to be: $ 250,000 – $ 300,000
seat in favour of the juicier wages in oil, mining and construction. The widely trumpeted solu- tion is to automate time-sapping jobs – a nice idea that has proved almost impossibly hard to bring to reality. Mr Beaujot’s aim was to build a versatile tool carrier, rather than wasting an intelligent plat- form by restricting its responsibilities to simply drilling or grain carting. His early plans proved enough to convince dozens of overworked Canadian growers (and several from other con- tinents) to put down deposits long before the finished product was ready to hit the fields.
How does it work? It uses a simple but clever U-shaped carriage to pick up implements sideways (in its 3.8 m- wide transport mode) before swivelling 90° on its four wheels so the engine sits at the front
during field work. The powerplant is a 200 hp Cummins Tier 5 block, which is mounted on one side of the box section frame and sends its power through a splitter gearbox to a set of four Poclain variable displacement hydraulic pumps. Two of these provide auxiliary power to the implements (all are oil-powered, so there’s no pto) while the other two provide hy- drostatic drive to the wheels. Each leg carries a hydraulic motor providing all-wheel power
As many as six units should be up and running for this season, with another 20 scheduled for 2019 and many more in the pre-order book. The focus is initially on Western Canada.
28 ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 1 November 2018
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