FARGO, N.D. — As the name implies, the Spirit Autonomous Tractor drives itself. There is no operator.
This is no experimental garden tractor or small scale orchard tractor. Rather, it’s a 400 horsepower working tractor aimed at broad acreage prairie farmers who are short on manpower and want a simpler, less expensive tractor.
It uses two diesel engines to power four electric motors, which drive twin rubber tracks.
Electricity is a more efficient power source, and early indications are that the electric tractor can do the work of a rubber tracked 500 h.p. diesel machine.
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The Spirit was designed by the Autonomous Tractor Corp. (ATC) in Fargo and the Automation Research Corp. in Minneapolis. It goes into production next spring with an expected price tag of less than $200,000 and a projected first run of 25 to 100 tractors.
“No one has rethought the ag tractor from the bottom up in probably 80 years,” said ATC chief technology officer LeRoy Anderson.
Terry Anderson, the man in charge of systems development at ATC.
said the company’s decision to make the tractor autonomous was a response to the skilled labour shortage plaguing agriculture.
“We talked to a few hundred farmers here in the Red River Valley and asked them about their biggest implement problem. Nearly every farmer said the biggest problem was finding qualified people to drive the darned tractor without busting things up. Or, the problems they have themselves driving the tractor.
“And this problem isn’t just the Red River Valley. It’s all across North America and around the world.”
The tractor’s navigation system works on the company’s own Area Positioning System, which controls the Spirit to within a fraction of an inch.
Complete details are featured in the Sept. 27 Western Producer.
