Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

Swords and Plowshares
February 6, 2008

 
University of Kentucky driverless tractor, July 2002

OF SWORDS AND PLOWSHARES 
A history professor I met at a faculty dinner said that the soldiers of ancient times were farmers.  Battles were scheduled so that those who survived could get back in time to tend their crops and herds.  The expression "beating swords into plowshares"   is an ancient phrase that reaches back to warfare's agricultural roots.  The phrase usually is associated with the demilitarization of some technology and its being turned to peaceful endeavors - such as Gillette converting warships into razor blades for consumers.  This can be a two way street, the technology created for agricultural machinery can be put to use by our armed forces to defend the country against those who wish to do us harm.  Is it time to take the self-driving tractor systems that are available and adapt them for use on Army supply trucks?  
                 
WHY TRACTOR TECHNOLOGY?
The guidance systems for tractors are already in production and are meant for use in dirt environments.  The guidance system costs about $24,000 to be retrofitted on a tractor as a kit.  Compare this to the cost of a cruise missile guidance system at $700,000 a copy.  Adapting a tractor guidance system could be the more affordable solution.

WHAT DRIVES Ag AUTOMATION
"If you can measure it, you can probably do something about it."-- anonymous automation engineer.   When you know the precise location of the harvesting machinery in the field and measure the flow mass of the havest you can plot the results for every square of the field.  This information then can then be used for later precise application of chemicals.  The objective of this game is to get as many squares as possible to be green (cash income), using the least amount of chemicals (cash expense).  


North Iowa Area Community College

IVTT UPDATE
The list of presenters for the Intelligent Vehicle Technology Transfer Seminar has changed so I went back and updated the information in my column of 2/1/08.

2007 DARPA URBAN CHALLENGE

Photo by AIM Team members Linda and Tom Graham

GO ROBOTS !

Posted by Paul Grayson on February 6, 2008 | Comments (0)