The future is now. Self-driving ag machines are rolling across farm fields. But while it might seem like recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have suddenly enabled automation in agriculture, its development has been a long time coming.
“I’ve been saying, ‘It’s next year,’ for 25 years,” said Mel Torrie, founder and CEO of Autonomous Solutions Inc. (ASI).
Autonomous machines work by using sensors to gather data about their surroundings such as obstacles, terrain and weather. Software then analyzes this data and tells the machine what to do next: turn left, speed up, stop or adjust its operation.
The foundations of machine learning dates back to World War II, where it was developed to predict aircraft trajectories and weather trends. Innovations like GPU chips accelerate processing, enabling edge computing, or the ability to process information directly within devices rather than through cloud technology.
So, why now?
Torrie said the conditions are now right for automation. “We have this convergence of labor challenges and governments being willing to bring some standards. It is time, and so we are now pedal to the metal,” he said.
He speaks from experience, having developed ag tech machine automation for more than 26 years. Torrie launched ASI in 2000 after John Deere discovered a research paper he wrote while in a master’s program in electrical engineering at Utah State University.
“They asked us to do some initial pilot projects at the university lab where I was working. They wanted us to prove that we could safely navigate a tractor around a 3-year-old, so we put a mannequin on a remote control toy and played chicken with the tractor,” he recalled.
Since those early experiments, ASI has helped develop the back-end automation technology used by major ag brands today.
Developing automation for ag tech is challenging because venture capital funding operates on a three- to four-year cycle. Startups take much longer than that to become viable. Agriculture poses unique challenges because most row crop farmers operate smaller fleets — several tractors, and one or two combines. Scaling autonomy across many vehicles within an ecosystem is the only way to make it fiscally viable — at least for now — and family farms simply can’t do that. Recognizing this, Torrie pivoted ASI to the mining industry, where scaling is more viable. There, ASI perfected the technology.
“In mining, we had 100% sensor failure, meaning that every sensor we put on a mining truck would fail,” Torrie said. “We just had to schedule replacements because of how brutal the environment is. We have learned that most business cases [for autonomy] go to labor shortage and utilization.”
These days, ASI’s brand-agnostic retrofit system, called Mobius, uses sensors, cameras, GPS and onboard computers to autonomously operate more than 1,000 vehicles — including 78 trucks at a single Australian mine. Beyond mining, ASI has automated equipment across multiple industries: factory and warehouse robots, golf course mowers, and construction machinery.
Instead of selling individual kits, ASI works with businesses to automate their operations with different solutions depending on the vehicle. Starlink, private LTE and other on-site connectivity lets operators monitor operations in real time from thousands of miles away.
Back to the farm
Now, as labor shortages and other farm challenges intensify, regulatory policies become more automation-friendly, and automation technology becomes more affordable, Torrie is returning to his agricultural roots.
“I come from a farm in Canada that grew grain and canola. That’s where my heart is. Driving in a circle 16 hours a day was motivating to get an education and to start a company,” he said.
ASI recently contracted with U.S. Sugar to automate its fleet of tractors rolling across 255,000 acres of farmland in southern Florida. U.S. Sugar’s massive acreage and the monotony of working sugarcane fields makes the operation an ideal for automation. As prices continue to decrease, Torrie said he believes autonomy will soon become a viable solution for farmers of all kinds.
“Is it affordable now? I would say it’s a bit of a stretch if you’re only doing planting and harvesting, and those kinds of scenarios. But the prices are definitely coming down,” he said. “Our first receivers were $47,000. Now, we’re using RTK with incredible [price] drops.”