Tractor auto steer systems are now widely used in precision agriculture because of their high precision and field information management and sharing features, to make farming easier and more efficient.
So what is precision agriculture? How is the tractor autosteer used in precision agriculture? Through this blog, we will have a general understanding of these issues.
What is Precision Agriculture？
Precision agriculture is an agricultural management strategy and a science that assists farmers in making agricultural management decisions. By observing and measuring crop and field information and analyzing the obtained information through analysis tools, it helps farmers improve profitability.
Precision agriculture can centrally manage fields by processing and analyzing the information collected over time, space, and individuals. Through the overall control of all field conditions, diversified management decisions are made for the sub-area fields, including adjusting the amount of fertilizer, farming time, optimizing technology, etc., which ultimately improves production efficiency, production quality, farmers' profit, and the sustainability of agricultural production.
At the technical level, precision agriculture is also known as GPS agriculture or variable speed agriculture. GPS technology plays an extremely important role in precision agriculture. With the development of GPS technology-related products, precision agriculture has also made great progress.
What is Precision Agriculture for?
The ultimate goal of precision agriculture is producing more with fewer resources while maintaining superior quality standards. It can benefit two sides.
For agriculturalists
It can optimize workflows and resources, thus reducing consumption and waste and increasing land productivity. Management makes processes faster and more efficient while reducing production costs. This results in higher earnings for agricultural workers.
For the environment
There will be more rational use of resources and less waste and emission of fertilizers and herbicides. Soil compaction can be reduced and soil degradation can be prevented. Precision agriculture keeps the land in a sustainable state.
Benefits of Auto Steer in Precision Agriculture
Tractor autosteer is a programmed tractor guidance system that does the job precisely as expected, avoiding human errors. This tractor guidance system makes agricultural work easy, and the driver hardly has to do anything to get the tractor to do the job with great precision. In summary, it has the following benefits:
1. Reduce driver fatigue
Driving seeders, harvesters, sprayers, etc. all day long is a very tiring task for the driver. The driver needs to stay awake at all times to ensure that the tractor does not go off course. In a large piece of farmland, doing repetitive operations can easily make the driver feel tired. Auto steer for tractors helps the driver to do the energy-intensive work of monitoring and controlling the direction, and the driver can simply stare at the screen to have a clear view of the current operation.
2. Reduce operating cost
Auto steer for tractors avoids row overlap and keeps the tractor working accurately. This avoids the waste of seeds and fertilizers and reduces the cost. Also, the cost of labor is greatly reduced as rework is avoided and the operation is accelerated.
3. Improve production quality and quantity
By avoiding excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides in overlapping areas, each plant can get the planned amount of fertilizers and pesticides, so that the plants can maintain maximum health and the quality and quantity of production are improved.
How Auto Steer Used in Precision Agriculture?
1. GNSS+RTK high-accuracy guidance
As satellite positioning and steering systems, they are among the best-known technologies in precision agriculture. These systems can increase efficiency and productivity.
With GPS or GNSS technology, it is possible to position the operating agricultural machinery. This prevents overlapping or bypassing in fertilization. Bypassed areas may experience decreased yield or pathogen attack. And overlapping areas increases consumption and costs.
FJD AT1 Autosteering Kit and FJD AT2 Auto Steer System are high-accuracy guidance and auto steering systems, equipped with GNSS+RTK. By using them, the tractor can move from point A to point B with high straight accuracy, thus saving time and fuel. This tractor guidance system allows farmers to plant crops in a more efficient way.
2. Electric steering wheel + wheel angle sensor for precise steering
Tractor auto steer systems are equipped with electric wheels and wheel angle sensors to achieve precise steering. This reduces the workload of driving the tractor, so the operator is free to focus on other aspects of the work.
3. ISOBUS protocol - A common language for precision agricultural services
That various agriculture machines can communicate with each other is important in taking full advantage of precision farming. ISOBUS is a protocol to solve this problem. ISOBUS is a communication protocol for the agriculture industry. It achieves communication among tractors, software, and devices, even from different manufacturers.
FJD AT1 Autosteering Kit and FJD AT2 Auto Steer System use the ISOBUS protocol, making them compatible with a wide range of agricultural equipment. This tractor guidance system can control all ISOBUS-certified equipment through a terminal control display in the tractor cab.
Features in Development
With the update of autonomous driving technology, it is believed that in the near future, we can realize remote control or full automation of tractors. Farmers do not need to go to the fields, and they only click on the computer or mobile phone to complete the agricultural work. At the same time, precision agriculture will also be more commonly used in both large and small farms. People can quickly and efficiently manage farming work through sufficient information and various automated procedures.
References
1. "Precision Agriculture", wikipedia.org. Wiki.
2. "Precision Agriculture Journal", springer.com. Springer.
3. "Precision Agriculture Topic", sciencedirect.com. ScinceDirect