Ouster and Fieldin have joined forces to deploy over 100 autonomy retrofit kits on tractors throughout the United States. This wide-scale project aims to enable autonomous navigation and operation of tractors through the implementation of advanced lidar technology.
With several hundred additional sensors expected to be added through 2024, this partnership marks the largest deployment of retrofit autonomy kits for autonomous tractors in the agricultural industry to date.
The autonomy kit comes equipped with several capabilities including auto-steering, autonomous spraying, and fully autonomous driver-out functionality. The OS1 sensors from Ouster provide vehicle localization, navigation, and object detection, while Fieldin’s autonomous solutions provide real-time data on crops and farm machinery to improve decision-making, productivity, and transparency.
According to Fieldin Chief Autonomy Officer Yonatan Horovitz, “Agricultural equipment operates rain or shine, in fluctuating temperatures and dusty environments and through narrow aisles of crops completing a variety of routine tasks from spraying and harvesting to mowing. Fieldin is modernizing agricultural management from beginning to end to optimize operations and reduce costs while making a positive global contribution through better food, higher yields, and environmental impact management.”
“To achieve this at scale, we needed a lidar sensor for our autonomy kit that was robust, reliable, and cost-effective.”
Fieldin has already installed over 10,000 IoT devices on agricultural machinery in the “three largest markets for fruit, nuts, and vegetables,” and plans to upgrade each of these installations with its autonomy kits.
This revolutionary project represents a significant step forward in the agricultural industry’s adoption of autonomous technology. By retrofitting existing tractors with advanced lidar technology, this partnership is helping farmers to achieve greater efficiency, productivity, and profitability while making a positive impact on the environment.
