// A new driverless spreader has been introduced this week by CNH Industrial.
The Case IH Trident™ 5550 applicator with Raven Autonomy™ can be operated with or without a driver.
CNH Industrial, which owns both Case IH and Raven Industries, says the autonomous spreader will help solve labor challenges and increase productivity on farm operations.
The Case IH Trident 5550 applicator with Raven Autonomy combines proven driverless technology with an agronomically designed spreading platform for a flexible autonomous solution. The technology stack is powered by guidance and steering, propulsion control, perception, and path planning software developed by Raven.
From a mobile device, operators can plan and complete an entire field operation based on mapped field boundaries. The Raven Autonomy perception system, through a series of advanced cameras and radar system, is constantly sensing a 360-degree environment around the machine for obstacles and motion initiation while operating. With artificial intelligence, Raven’s perception controller processes the continuous stream of images, which interprets and detects obstacles. The remote operator can view the cameras through the mobile device at any time.
If an obstacle is detected, the machine will safely come to a stop and an alert will pop up on the mobile device. From there, the operator can evaluate the situation and determine the next course of action. A variety of machine tasks and functions can be viewed remotely through the mobile device, including but not limited to fuel level, Diesel Exhaust Fluid level, speed, revolutions per minute (RPM), bin-level status, Universal Terminal information and diagnostic trouble codes.
“This is a significant milestone in our accelerated product development efforts between Case IH and Raven, highlighting our intense collaboration and robust product innovation following CNH Industrial’s acquisition of Raven in late 2021,” said Scott Harris, Case IH global brand president.
“The core of today’s ag tech is rooted in Raven’s customer-centric approach: simplifying farming processes to gain tremendous efficiencies,” said Eric Shuman, Raven general manager. “This integrated solution empowers customers to make their operations even more efficient, encouraging them to thoughtfully adopt increasing levels of automation and autonomy.”
“The Raven Autonomy perception system provides an advanced, reliable solution for autonomous operation and is tailored specifically for the spreading application with a self-propelled machine,” Shuman said.
CNH Industrial says the Case IH Trident™ 5550 applicator with Raven Autonomy™ comes as a result of ongoing research following the Case IH autonomous concept vehicle launch in 2016 about the desire for and priority of autonomous technologies. Findings concluded that spreading is among the most utilized autonomous tasks that customers would adopt.
Source: CNH Industrial.
