By Alicia Moulton
It is July, and Montana farmers are testing software from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on a tractor’s autosteer operating system. The software uses field data to tell a tractor where to travel for the most efficient drive path. Then, the tractor pulls a 90-foot-long agricultural sprayer that covers large swaths of a field with liquids such as fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides.
Farmers who plan their drive paths typically use a basic GPS — great for drawing straight lines, but less effective for irregular field shapes and other complexities. Farmers could use fertilizer, fuel and other resources more efficiently — saving both time and money — if they could chart smarter drive paths.
The software tested in Montana this summer offers a solution. Called FieldSim, this software was developed by INL systems scientist Lionel Toba to make calculations about growing bioenergy crops on low-value land. It turns out that this same software can be used to calculate field efficiency for farmers.
Seeing this potential, INL made FieldSim available for licensing. Two entrepreneurs are now developing FieldSim as a commercial product in partnership with Montana State University. This success story shows how lab-developed software can make its journey into the commercial market.
“FieldSim moving from a research tool into commercial use is incredibly rewarding,” Toba said. “This is technology transfer at its best: turning years of research into tools that make a tangible difference in the field.”
Source : inl.gov