PHOTO: ALEXANDER BERTLING
PHOTO: ALEXANDER BERTLING PHOTO: ALEXANDER BERTLING
AUTONOMOUS DRIVING ▶▶▶
John Deere auto turn takes over on headlands
BY ALEXANDER BERTLING, RENÉ KOERHUIS
with the Greenstar 3 2630 Terminal and iTEC Pro software. Programming the system how- ever could be a bit of a nuisance as it did not communicate with the tractor integrated iTEC headland management system. Activating both systems simultaneously wasn’t possible and it required ‘double’ programming. With the arrival of the 4600 CommandCenter and 4640 universal displays, the Gen 4 displays, the automatic turning and the operations se- quences are now integrated. You can now op- erate it entirely from the 4600 Command- Center without the need for an additional terminal. The manufacturer also put effort in reducing the number of required parameters which should make the operation easier and more straightforward.
J
Setting up AutoTrac turn automation firstly requires a few pre-sets such as creating/setting up the implement and the field. Setting up the
ohn Deere has been offering systems for automatic turning on headlands and managing the required operations since 2006. Before, this was possible
Technology for automatic turning on headlands is becoming more and more sophisticated and easier to use. Our German colleagues from Profi magazine took John Deere’s Gen4 4600 CommandCenter with AutoTrac turn automation to the test.
implement now is easier than before as it just requires the working width and the distance between tracks. The latter can be done auto- matically (based on the working width) or by hand. Other settings like any offset or physical implement width are already pre-set. You can alter these if needed. Field borders can either be set by using previous application or pre- scription maps or by driving along the perim- eter of the field. Another (new) option is cre- ating borders and tracks in the office and transferring them wirelessly to the tractor. An- other novelty is the possibility to create tracks directly on the field. Previously offered by competitors, now also by John Deere and tru- ly valued by our test team, is the possibility to ‘link’ a boundary track to the field border. If corners are too tight to turn, the system auto- matically recognises this and deactivates. If that’s the case, the tracks just end exactly in the corners and that’s how we like them. Apart from setting the boundary or headland
tracks, it is required to record/set the track for the inner field by means of an AB-line or a contoured line. In future, we would cheer the possibility to simply ‘copy’ the line of a bound- ary track to the inner field and use that as a guidance line for the total field.
More intuitive operation The sequence of operations and machine functions is done in the iTEC menu, just like before. New is the possibility to assign certain sequences to approaching the headland or leaving the headland as well as crossing in- field borders. It means that machine functions previously required at the end of the field, when operating drawn implements, no longer require user input. You can assign se- quences with buttons as well as with the CommandCenter lever. You can execute se- quences manually this way which is an advan- tage in field corners and in case of unforeseen obstacles. Everything comes together in the
You can easily select the next turn and the number of tracks to skip with the arrow buttons.
44 ▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 February 2019
If you forget a certain setting, you can quickly jump directly to the cor- rect menu.
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