PTx Outrun expands autonomy options
PTx continues to expand the capabilities of its OutRun Autonomy Platform, adding more tractors and more flexibility for farmers using multiple combines.
The company won a Gold award in the Innovations Program at Ag in Motion, which runs July 21 to 23 at Langham, Sask.
Dinen Subramaniam, product launch manager for OutRun Autonomy, says that the product was launched last year on John Deere 8R tractors, the most popular tractor for field crops in North America.
This year it had its full commercial launch, including availability on the Fendt 900 and 1,000 series. It will soon be available for John Deere’s 9R tractors.
The company demonstrated the platform at Ag in Motion with an autonomous grain cart pulled by Fendt 900-series tractor synching up with a Fendt Ideal combine (PTx is owned by Agco, which also owns the Fendt brand).
It also had an autonomous John Deere 9R running pulling a Degelman tillage unit.
“We’ll also be going down to smaller horsepower models over time,” says Subramaniam.
Each tractor has its own nuances and powertrain, he says, and the company wants to make sure that the customer experience continues to be good for farmers.
The system might be limited with tractors, but it can be used in any combine with power.
“We love the flexibility that goes with our retrofit approach,” Subramaniam says.
In the cab of the Fendt Ideal combine, Desmond Lagace was giving tours to interested farmers.
The combine driver is in control of the grain cart. Using a touch screen monitor, Lagace chose a staging area for the tractor and grain cart, near the combine. When the combine is full, the combine auger is moved out and the operator calls the grain cart.
It’s more for a combine driver to think about, but the levels of automation in combines mean there are fewer tasks for a combine operator than there once was.
Once the grain cart and tractor arrive at the combine, the combine operator can nudge the tractor forward and backward to get the grain into the cart as needed.
The grain cart then can be called to a truck staging area. A truck operator has to climb into the cab of the tractor and unload the grain cart manually at this point. Subramaniam says they continue to work on the complex automation around the unloading of grain, including managing a PTO autonomously.
“We really want to make sure that we use the growers, the farmer’s existing equipment, so they don’t have to go out and buy a new piece of equipment,” says Subramaniam.
