Next-gen software aims to digitally connect tractors and farm tools
San Francisco-based Agtonomy, a company specialising in advanced autonomous solutions, announced the first-of-its-kind smart farm task ecosystem that digitally and autonomously connects self-driving tractors with farm tools and implements to create greater efficiency and sustainability in the field.
“For autonomy to bring value to agriculture, we must think about tractors and farm tools like farmers do. Together,” said Tim Bucher, Agtonomy CEO and co-founder. “While other companies have designed individual components of farm robotics, either self-driving tractors or autonomous implements, Agtonomy has connected the digital dots between machines to seamlessly and autonomously execute tasks while keeping farmers in control.”
According to company, the Smart Farm Task Ecosystem gives farmers the advanced computing and AI-software and the farm-tested hardware needed to remotely plan and autonomously execute daily field tasks in orchard, vineyard, berry and specialty crop production.
“Unlike driving a car from point A to point B, no farmer goes ‘tractoring.’ Farmers use equipment for very specific, precise tasks that are becoming more challenging in today’s environment,” Bucher said. “By working with industry partners farmers know and trust on both the tractor and implement side, we can more rapidly scale a complete autonomous solution for farmers today.”
Agtonomy is also expanding its introductory paid pilot programme started in 2023. For 2024, multiple wineries have signed on to participate, including E & J Gallo, the world’s largest winery, and Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), one of the world’s largest premium wine companies, as well as several award-winning wineries including Silver Oak Cellars and Caymus Vineyards. In addition, Agtonomy is working toward expanding the pilot program to West Coast fruit and nut tree growers.
“TWE has been trialling robotics across our global operations for a number of years now and we’re excited about the potential for AI to continue to improve safety across our business through automation and progress our farming techniques and sustainability efforts. After experiencing Agtonomy’s farmer-first approach and their ability to deliver in-field, autonomous solutions, we are thrilled to continue collaborating in the development of advanced tools to succeed in today’s evolving farming environment,” said Simon Graves, Director of Vineyard Operations at Treasury Americas, a division of Treasury Wine Estates.
“Grower partnership allows us to tap into their knowledge of every tree, row or landscape to focus and strengthen autonomous design for real ROI for the end-user. OEM collaborations are vital to scaling adoption to the industry as a whole because they have the ability to produce not just a few hundred autonomous tractors a year, but tens of thousands, which provides the level of impact this industry desperately needs,” Bucher added.
Image: Agtonomy
