Intel provides self-driving tech for tractors in California vineyards

Federated Wireless and Blue White Robotics have partnered with Intel to provide self-driving technology to tractors in California vineyards. One of the tractors, unveiled at the Intel Vision conference in May, automates repetitive tasks and frees workers from menial tasks, freeing them up for higher-value tasks.

At Intel Vision, Intel demonstrated what is possible when companies combine high-bandwidth, low-latency private 5G wireless networks with edge computing devices. Intel worked with Federated Wireless (a wireless infrastructure solutions provider) and Blue White Robotics (an Israeli autonomous driving solutions provider) to provide technology support for self-driving tractors in California vineyards, enabling them to automate repetitive tasks and free workers from tedious tasks, freeing them up to handle higher-value tasks.

As we look to the future of automated agriculture, we are very optimistic about the prospects for 5G edge solutions and believe that these solutions can help our customers create new business and revenue models.

——Caroline Chan

Intel Vice President and

General Manager of Network Business Incubator

Once the farmer has mapped out the tractor’s route, the fleet can start working. The tractors work unmanned, in two shifts, 24 hours a day, through the vineyards. Sensors on the tractors can detect obstacles in the path, while other sensors can guide the tractors to avoid them.

Over the course of more than a year of the three-party collaboration, autonomous tractors were deployed to perform repetitive tasks such as weeding, mowing and spraying herbicides on the farm's two square miles of vines.

Like most farms, this is far from the city and there is not enough cellular network or broadband connection to cover every corner. The lack of network connection also means that sensors cannot collect real-time data from farm equipment or automate farm tasks. Therefore, Federated Wireless also deployed a dedicated wireless network to overcome the connection barriers within the site.

The private wireless network is powered by an edge server equipped with a six-core Intel Xeon D-1528 processor, which also uses Intel Smart Edge software to connect the autonomous tractors and sensors together.

Meanwhile, autonomous equipment specialist Blue White Robotics also offers kits for converting existing John Deere tractors into fleets of self-driving machines.

Blue White Robotics came to us with a specific problem. They had a fleet of automated tractors working on farmland in the countryside, but the machines couldn’t communicate with each other because there was little to no internet connectivity on the farms, which meant they had no opportunity to process real-time data.

--Bhupesh Agrawal

Intel Network and Edge Solutions Group

Director of Private Wireless Networks and Edge Computing

Agrawal and his team are now looking beyond grapevines for their next big challenge: They hope to expand the technology to citrus and nut farms, iterating on the technology along the way.

Why choose a nut farm? Mainly to embrace the challenge. Take macadamia nuts, a crop that is very important to the California economy, for example. The densely packed nut bushes provide a much more complex environment than neatly trimmed grape vines.

In Agrawal's eyes, these farms are not just dense clumps of plants, but also a source of valuable information. Each plant is a data source that can drive the unlimited potential of edge computing, but only if we can capture and process this data properly. In this way, these plants can make greater contributions to our customers, partners and the communities where they are located.