Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - April 2022 - 19

Emerging Technologies
Full automation and autonomy solutions will boost productivity throughout the entire farming cycle.
The newly formed CNH Industrial Ventures will
help the company build additional growth opportunities.
It aims to leverage existing partnerships and
explore further collaboration with promising digital
and technology start-ups operating in agriculture and
construction. For example, other current partnerships
include work on electrification and autonomy
with California-based start-up Monarch, and on realtime
AI (artificial intelligence) vision analytics with
Greek company Augmenta, which has a U.S. base in
Dallas, Texas.
Scalable tech stack
Farmers need to meet rising demand for crops while
utilizing fewer resources - fewer workers, decreased
irrigation and reduced chemical usage. " Precision
Technology tackles all of those concerns by uniting
data analysis and machine automation and is the
backbone of CNH Industrial's long-term strategy, "
said Parag Garg, chief digital officer. Garg joined
the company about a year ago after spending 20
years developing consumer tech products such as
Microsoft Windows and 5G products at T-Mobile.
A robust " tech stack " that offers flexibility and
a plug-and-play architecture is at the core of CNH
Industrial's path to greater automation and eventual
autonomy. The tech stack is defined across five dimensions:
architecture, connectivity and data platform,
guidance, automation and intelligence, and autonomy.
" Raven bridges our autonomous gap and adds
tremendous automation capabilities as a leader in sprayer
applications and their expanded suite of guidance technology, "
Garg said, also touting Raven's V2V (vehicle to
vehicle) expertise. " We are testing future-forward solutions
to be ready for market, such as enhancing our V2V
communication so machines don't overlap work areas. "
The new Case IH 50 Series sprayer utilizes precision
tech from Raven, including the automated boom
height leveling, rate control monitoring, the Hawkeye
2 individual nozzle control and VSN vision steering
guidance. The system allows sprayers to cover 20%
more acres per day and avoid respraying the same area.
Environmental benefits include reducing nitrogen
usage by 9% and plant growth regulators (PGR) usage
by 20%, while aiding harvest by 15%, according to
Derek Neilson, president of the Agriculture segment.
CNH Industrial also is working with Augmenta
on " See and Act " real-time AI vision analytics for
fertilizer and pesticide control on sprayers. The vision
system can reduce the application of fertilizers by up to
40% while increasing yield, Garg said. Augmenta and
CNH Industrial are currently testing this enhanced
system in Texas. " In Q2 of this year, we will start
testing See and Act capabilities with customer validation, "
he said. The company is also exploring other
applications for the vision AI.
Combines are another segment that greatly
benefits from automation, Neilson said. " An
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
April 2022 19
CNH Industrial

Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - April 2022

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