Ouster, a leading provider of high-performance lidar sensors, and Fieldin, a smart farming platform, and autonomous technology company have announced a multi-year supply agreement for the largest known deployment of retrofit autonomy kits for autonomous tractors in the agricultural industry. Fieldin plans to deploy over 100 autonomy retrofit kits on tractors, each equipped with an Ouster OS1 sensor, to major customers across the United States in 2023. Fielding’s autonomous solutions sit alongside their Smart Farming Operations platform, providing aggregated data and dashboards to create visibility in real-time and insight for farm decision-makers.
Ouster and Fieldin are teaming up to revolutionize the agricultural industry with innovative and scalable autonomous farming solutions. The partnership will see Fieldin deploy retrofit autonomy kits for autonomous tractors equipped with Ouster’s high-performance lidar sensors to transform today’s farms into autonomous ones.
Fieldin has already deployed dozens of kits at its customers’ farms and plans to deploy over 100 autonomy retrofit kits on tractors, each equipped with an Ouster OS1, to major customers across the United States in 2023. The deployment of these 100 retrofit autonomy kits will make it the largest deployment of autonomous tractors in the industry to date.
The autonomy kits offer various levels of automation. Unlockable features include auto-steering and other driving assistance capabilities, autonomous spraying, and fully autonomous driver-out functionality in line with rapidly evolving local autonomous driving regulations. These features can drive improved operational efficiency and significant cost reductions, such as up to 87% in chemical savings for high-value crop growers.
To achieve this at scale, Fieldin needed a lidar sensor for its autonomy kit. Ouster’s OS1 sensors on tractors and other farm machinery provide reliable vehicle localization, navigation, and object detection, ensuring that Fieldin’s autonomous solutions sit alongside their Smart Farming Operations platform, providing aggregated data and dashboards to create visibility in real-time and insight for farm decision-makers.
The market for autonomous farming equipment is expected to reach approximately $95 billion by 2027. In the U.S., an estimated 4 million agricultural machines can be retrofitted and automated. Fieldin has installed more than 10,000 IoT devices on agricultural machinery in the three largest markets for fruit, nuts, and vegetables and aims to upgrade each of these installations with one of its autonomy kits.
The partnership between Ouster and Fieldin aims to address common challenges facing the agricultural industry through innovative and scalable autonomous farming solutions, modernizing agricultural management from beginning to end to optimize operations and reduce costs while making a positive global contribution through better food, higher yields, and environmental impact management.
Image provided by Fieldin
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