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£333,000 Autonomous Tractor Programme Advances EVIE’s Agricultural Technology
The successful completion of a £333,218 Innovate UK-funded autonomous tractor programme has strengthened the agricultural engineering heritage behind EVIE Autonomous.
AUTOTRACT was an 18-month industrial research programme focused on developing an affordable, interoperable and ISO 26262-aligned autonomous software platform for tractor manufacturers.
The programme was formally delivered through Cavonix and now forms part of the technology development story underpinning EVIE’s agricultural autonomy proposition.
Addressing Agriculture’s Labour and Productivity Challenges
Agriculture is facing increasing pressure from labour shortages, rising operating costs, environmental requirements and the need to produce more food with fewer resources.
Autonomous technology has the potential to address these pressures, but many existing systems are tied to one manufacturer, one machine or one operating task.
AUTOTRACT investigated a different model: an autonomous software and control platform that could be adapted for use by multiple tractor and agricultural-equipment manufacturers.
The project combined proprietary programming tools, object-based algorithms, sensor fusion and X-by-Wire control technology within a complete autonomous architecture.
Support from Harper Adams University and access to experience from its pioneering Hands-Free Hectare programme provided a route for real-world technical assessment of the TRL6 prototype.
Steven Lake, Founder and CEO of EVIE Autonomous, said:
“Agriculture does not need another expensive autonomous machine that can only perform one job. Farmers and manufacturers need flexible intelligence that can be integrated into the equipment they already use and adapted as requirements change.
“AUTOTRACT helped establish the engineering principles behind that approach. Those principles remain central to EVIE’s work in agriculture today: vehicle independence, affordability, edge intelligence and the ability to automate different machines and tasks.”
From Autonomous Tractors to Intelligent Agricultural Machines
The challenges addressed by AUTOTRACT extend beyond self-driving tractors.
EVIE’s ARLO platform is being developed to support tractors, sprayers, utility vehicles, robotic implements and specialist agricultural machinery.
Using cameras, artificial intelligence, AI-enhanced 4D radar, RTK positioning and other localisation technologies, ARLO can be configured to navigate, detect objects and perform defined tasks within agricultural environments.
The wider objective is to provide manufacturers and operators with a common autonomous intelligence platform that can be deployed across several machines, locations and applications.
The completed AUTOTRACT programme represents an important stage in EVIE’s continuing development of commercially practical autonomous technology for agriculture.