John Deere Launches 8R Autonomous Tractor

Analysis:
The concept of tractor autonomy received a huge validation with the launch of the John Deere 8R autonomous tractor. Farmers trust the John Deere brand, and the standard 8R tractor is a well-loved, established and familiar farming platform.

The autonomous tractor uses six pairs of stereo cameras, which enables 360-degree obstacle detection and the calculation of distance for things seen in the cameras. Obstacle avoidance, navigation and localization is achieved by fusing information seen in the cameras together with information from other sensors, including GPS.

The autonomous tractor continuously checks its position relative to a geofence, ensuring it is operating where it is supposed to, and with accuracy of +/- 1 inch.

At its heart, the John Deere 8R tractor leverages the autonomous guidance technology that John Deere acquired from Blue River Technology. This platform has more than four years of development and testing behind it. The autonomous package is a dealer installed option and can be retrofitted on any 8R tractor from model year 2020 or later. – Mike Oitzman