Finally it’s there!
The prototype Spirit autonomous tractor, presented at the Big Iron Farm Show in West Fargo, ND
in September, breaks the convention and avoids of the necessity for a driver to
operate the vehicle from the cab. Actually, with the driver aside and the
machine’s rectangular shape, it looks like rubber-tracked yellow LEGO block,
more than a modern tractor. “That’s the look of the future” says Terry
Anderson, the president of the Autonomous Tractor Corporation and the Spirit
designer at the same time.
Anderson makes a point that not much has changed in tractor design for the last
decade, except that the machines got bigger and more sophisticated. Being the entrepreneur,
with some knowledge of communication technology, industrial machine design and
manufacturing, Anderson decided that some changes are inevitable. The most
conspicuous difference between the Spirit and the any traditional tractor, that
you spot instantly is the lack of the tractor cab. The company’s design
objective was to build a low – cost and durable tractor, featured with the
safe, no-driver navigation system. The Spirit model is going to have long,
25.000 – hr. service life, a 500 – hr. service interval and a maximum 2-hr.
repair time, with the selling price of $500 per horsepower. That includes a
hybrid laser-radio navigation system, eliminating the chances to stray outside
field boundaries.
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