FUTURE FARMING
which now weighs 40 tons
with ballasting could then weigh
just six tons.”
Getting the messages across
Communications will entail an
intelligent Farm Management
System (FMS) transmitting sitespeci
c path-planning to a Swarm
Management System (SMS), which
wirelessly transfers instructions to
communication modules on
individual swarm units.
“Because each unit downloads its
task for the whole day then executes
it, a real-time connection is not
needed, making the system more
robust,” says Herlitzius. Wireless
connections were initially de ned
using ISObus understanding across
11P-standard hardware, though
Herlitzius anticipates migrating to
a 5G-mesh network as the project
progresses. Cobots will exchange
status reports with the SMS, which can
22 iVTInternational.com September 2019
IS THE FUTURE ELECTRIC?
For industrial partner John Deere,
electrifi cation provides a particular
focus within Projekt Feldschwarm.
“We are very active in hooking our
products up to renewable energy
sources for sustainability,” explains
John Deere’s Dr Nicolai Tarasinski.
“We have researched alternative-fuel,
battery and battery-hybrid tractors as
well as our cable-electric tractor, the
GridCON. John Deere believes
electrifi cation will solve many of our
long-term problems, making it easier
to build distributed drivetrains which
support higher power-density and
reduce soil compaction.” But with
alternative technologies still evolving,
Feldschwarm proceeds with diesel in
the fi rst instance.
“We don’t want to use diesel
engines, but they still provide the
compensate if a problem arises,
sending recalibrated instructions to
other units. But perfecting the
sensorization necessary to automation
and resolving interface latencies
between units at di ering productivity
levels will take time, making it
expedient to keep a human in the loop.
300kW
The total power carried
in the cable to John
Deere’s GridCON
concept tractor
“JOHN DEERE BELIEVES ELECTRIFICATION WILL SOLVE MANY OF
OUR LONGTERM PROBLEMS, MAKING IT EASIER TO BUILD
DISTRIBUTED DRIVETRAINS WHICH SUPPORT HIGHER POWER
DENSITY AND REDUCE SOIL COMPACTION”
Dr Nicolai Tarasinski, John Deere
most viable power-source for a
fi eld-swarm,” Tarasinski concedes,
while advancing several ideas of how
working units could be split from an
electric power-source in the further
future, creating reduced power-toweight
ratios. “The most advanced is
the GridCON concept: a stationary
energy source powering the swarm
over a cable. The cable solution is
attractive for high-power and
high-productivity farming, but is
far-future and not without its
diffi culties.”
Anyone who owns an electric
lawnmower will appreciate the
challenges of marshalling a tractor on
a cable, but GridCON has safely
accomplished this feat through
intelligent path-planning. “With
GPS-based automatic driving, we
know exactly where the cable is at
any given moment. We can put it on
the ground and drive with centimetreprecision,
causing the cable virtually
no mechanical stress,” says Tarasinski.
The working limitations imposed
by a cable once seemed
insurmountable, but can now be
quantifi ed, managed and off-set
against compensating effi ciencies.
“For agricultural tasks involving
diffi cult manoeuvres or skipping rows,
a battery-powered swarm vehicle
would still be preferable,” he
continues. “If you have large trees,
then good luck with the cable! But
we’re defi nitely committed to
developing electric energy sources,
transmission and distribution using
new machine forms which resemble
a tractor – but not much.”
ABOVE: John Deere’s
GridCON has raised a few
eyebrows with its radical
design. The OEM is confi dent
tangled cable will not be an
issue… and is presumably
similarly unconcerned by the
possibility of a farmer’s wife
inadvertently unplugging it
to make a cup of tea…
Feldschwarm.indd 22 09/10/2019 16:30
/iVTInternational.com
