‘Is bigger really better?,’ asks agricultural robot inventor

Oct 27, 2017

The autonomous ‘power unit’ could be an important labour-saver for North American farmers

“Don’t be scared,” said Norbert Beaujot, President of DOT Autonomous Farm Technologies, during his presentation at the Farms.com Precision Agriculture Conference on Wednesday.

When he shared DOT, a standardized autonomous “power unit,” at a previous event, Beaujot was surprised that some farmers said they were afraid of the technology.

Beaujot lulled fears by saying “DOT is full of well-known, well-used technology that (farmers) are already familiar with.” Safety increases with the use of autonomous machinery, he believes.

Beaujot, a farmer with engineering and manufacturing experience, designed DOT with farmers in mind. He wanted to weed out inefficiencies in today’s farming techniques and operations. He felt that new equipment is very expensive, but believed standardized autonomous power solutions are a great alternative.

Beaujot designed DOT by determining it needed to efficiently seed the same land area that is typically harvested by one large combine (2,000 to 3,500 acres). Farmers with more acreage could simply use multiple DOTs to meet their specific needs.

What exactly is DOT? It is a mobile U-shaped frame that is diesel-powered, a piece of farming equipment designed to work with implements used in agriculture. The U-shaped design enables the implements to be loaded in such a way that they can join and become one with the platform. DOT is equipped with both short and long-range sensors that make it very accurate. The unit updates itself with images from the physical world around it – and processes the information in micro-seconds.

DOT is the future of farm machinery, Beaujot believes because of its ability to complete tasks autonomously. Farmers who use this technology will be able to spend more of their time focusing on the overall farm operation, as opposed to operating the farm equipment itself.

DOT is smaller and nimbler than most of today’s equipment. The autonomous power unit allows farmers to get more acres out of irregular shaped fields, with lower horse-power needs per acre, Beaujot says.

DOT will have lower investment costs with higher functionality. It should also reduce maintenance costs, Beaujot says. With its remote monitors and autonomous capabilities, Beaujot also believes the autonomous power unit will lower labor costs.

Autonomous cars have already been approved for use in the United States. 25,000 fully autonomous cars are approved for use on the road for 2018, and up to 100,000 cars by 2020. Most farmers are more tech savvy than non-farmers, and so it should be easy for the agricultural community to embrace this technology and adopt it on their farms, Beaujot says.

Beaujot is working with equipment manufacturer SeedMaster on the development of the DOT product. He anticipates that DOT will see a limited release in 2018.

For more information, visit: seedotrun.com

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