High-tech platform takes over driver’s seat in the field
DOT looks like something out of a science fiction movie, a sleek silvery robot rolling through a snowy field east of Regina on Thursday.
But, hooked to a bright yellow SeedMaster seeder, it’s the farm equipment of the near future.
In 2014, when SeedMaster president Norbert Beaujot dreamt up the autonomous power platform, DOT Technology Corp. was born.
A lot of farming equipment is already autonomous, said Cory Beaujot, Norbert’s son and the marketing manager of SeedMaster.
“A lot of farmers’ time on tractors is occupied by Twitter and social media,” said Beaujot.
The goal with DOT is to allow farmers to focus on other work, without being in a driver’s seat.
“A lot of farmers are business people, a lot of farmers are agronomists or maybe teachers or a variety of different kinds of dual roles that farmers have, and the autonomous piece can open up new realities for a lot of people,” said Beaujot.
There are other robotic farming implements in existence, but DOT is unique in that it is a base for multiple pieces.
Usually, “full-drive train is tied down to a single-use product,” said Trent Meyer, SeedMaster executive vice-president.
“So a sprayer is a sprayer and you’ve got a very expensive engine, transmission, hydraulics, all tied to that. And the rest of the year, when you don’t need a sprayer, it just sits there.”
With no cab or steering wheel, the U-shaped DOT is a diesel-powered platform that hooks to other things — so far, a seeder, a land roller, a sprayer and a harvest cart.
“So it’s not an autonomous seeder, it’s an autonomous power platform that can be hooked to anything, and then makes whatever it’s hooked to autonomous by its association,” Beaujot said.
There is no cab or steering wheel — DOT runs by remote control or through computer programming according to GPS.
Meyer said SeedMaster is working on partnerships with other implement manufacturers; more than 100 farming implements could be made “DOT ready.”
After testing at SeedMaster’s research farm near Langbank, plans are to expand DOT to several other farms for further testing next season.
Pricing isn’t yet set in stone, but Meyer said DOT should be competitively priced, while saving farmers money in other areas.
DOT can help address labour shortages on farms.
It could also attract new people to farming — those who see it as more of a technological or business opportunity.
Since DOT doesn’t tow or trail equipment, it makes for safer farming. It’s lighter weight than traditional equipment and can turn easily, thus burning less fuel.
DOT is scalable technology, said Beaujot. It can be used on a 3,000acre farm, or on a 30,000-acre farm with several DOTs in use.
DOT was launched at Ag In Motion near Saskatoon in July and will likely be present at the Canada Farm Progress Show in Regina in June.
So far, Beaujot said there has been little shock at the idea — farmers are already used to autonomous technology.
“There’s a lot of GPS guidance systems … so they get it a bit more perhaps than a lot of the population,” said Beaujot.
DOT is just the latest example of Saskatchewan’s leading agricultural technology, said Meyer.
“When it comes to broad-acre, small-grains seeding, all the technology in the world that’s leading the industry is coming out of Saskatchewan,” he said, listing Morris, Bourgault and Seed Hawk as examples.
“The farmers, they’re pushing us to come up with better solutions. They are the innovators; all of these companies grew from farmers.”
Since the early 1980s, when agricultural engineer Norbert Beaujot moved back to the family farm, he has been tweaking technology — starting with his father’s seeder, which failed at planting canola.
With his first patent in 1991, Norbert and his brother Pat Beaujot started Seed Hawk. In 2002, the brothers parted ways as business partners and Norbert founded SeedMaster.
Creating DOT has been a team effort. One of the team’s newest members is Joshua Friedrick, no stranger to autonomous technology. Friedrick is part of a team of University of Regina engineering graduates — including his brother and fellow SeedMaster employee Caleb Friedrick — that has designed robotic farm equipment and twice won the ag BOT Challenge in Indiana.
The farmers, they’re pushing us to come up with better solutions. They are the innovators; all of these companies grew from farmers.