The kit
Blue White Robotics, a Tel Aviv-based company founded in 2017, has announced an aftermarket robotics kit that can make any tractor “fully autonomous.” The kit offers a number of spatial computing features, including a LiDAR obstacle avoidance and anti-collision system, camera obstacle avoidance, and smart mapping. On the safety side, it includes geofencing, pressure-sensitive failsafe bumpers, and a bunch of emergency kill switches.
Upgrade the fleet you have
The kit’s primary benefit: It makes it easier for farms to implement new technologies without changing out their existing tractors. After Blue White installs the kit and gets the tractor up and running—a process that takes about one day—the tractor would be able to work 24/7 with minimal human oversight.
An autonomous farm
The kit also brings the tractors online and into the company’s BlueWhite platform, where farms can operate and manage them alongside drones and robots. This offers a step toward what Blue White calls an “autonomous farm,” and all the benefits you’ve come to expect from automation, like improved safety, higher efficiency, and operational insights derived from granular real-world data.
How does it work?
Use the included software to draw the tractor’s area of operation and define a geofence. When the tractor is in the field, it uses its AI and smart mapping features for navigation. It moves down one row of crops, finds the end of the row, and then turn onto the next one.