Mahindra showcases its first driverless tractor

Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Email

Comments

The Mahindra Research Valley in Chennai has showcased a driverless tractor, which Mahindra says will be commercially available from early 2018 in a phased manner.

The technology is designed to enable tractors to perform a variety of farming applications and can also be operated remotely with a tablet device.

Some of the features include:

• Auto Steer — GPS based technology that enables the tractor to travel along a straight line
• Auto-headland turn — Enables the tractor to orient itself along adjacent rows for continuous operation without any steering input from the farmer.
• Auto-implement lift — Automatically lifts the work tool from the ground at the end of a row and lowers the tool after the tractor has oriented itself for operation at the next row.
• Skip passing — Enables the tractor to steer to the next row for continuous operation without any intervention of the driver.

In addition, the driverless tractor is also equipped with some safety features:

• Geofence lock — Prevents tractor from going outside the boundaries of the farm
• Control via Tablet — Besides being a remote control, the tablet also enables the farmer to prevent the tractor veering off from its intended path or desired operation.
• Remote Engine Start Stop — Ability to stop the engine and hence, bring the tractor to a complete STOP if needed in cases of emergency.

Speaking on this occasion, Pawan Goenka, MD, Mahindra & Mahindra said, “Our tractor R & D has always been at the forefront of pioneering cutting edge solutions. Today’s display of the driverless tractor is another proud moment for us, as it opens up new possibilities in farming. We are happy to dedicate this innovative mechanization for the global farming community, in line with our Farming 3.0 proposition”.

Rajesh Jejurikar, President, Farm Equipment Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra said, “Today the need for farm mechanization is higher than ever before, due to labour shortage and the need to improve productivity and farm produce yield. Coupled with our ‘DiGiSENSE’ technology that we launched last year, the driverless tractor offers a distinct advantage to the Indian farmer by bringing an unprecedented level of intelligence to the tractor”.