From a Self-Contained Combine Harvester to a Self-Contained Farm

We discussed agricultural machine building trends, smart farming and the need for high-tech solutions with Maksim Nakhabo, Marketing Director, Rostselmash.

Maksim, on the threshold of the exhibition AGRITECHNICA 2019 that traditionally presents the most important trends in agriculture, let us talk about how Rostselmash perceives the agrarian development from the perspective of technological advance.

Now the requirements for agricultural machines are changing in the world. The trend is that it is not the combine harvester, tractor or any other machine itself that will be of demand soon, but rather the smart system with the machine being one of its elements. This system will help define farming principles and its elements will be capable of fulfilling a particular task. This is required to promote food security: the number of people on the Earth is increasing, they need food, and it is obvious that at one time or another the extensive growth in agriculture will become impossible as there will be a shortage of farming lands. The growth will only be possible due to the efficient use of resources and the reduction of the number of errors. It is exactly what smart farming systems will have to ensure, such systems being developed by all large agricultural machine builders nowadays. Here are two ways, i.e. buying third party’s technology and developing own technology. Rostselmash is following the second path: from our point of view, learning expertise in the field of automation of agricultural production, and introduction of intelligent systems is the right strategy that will allow remaining the end product author in the context of rapidly changing technology, remaining the supplier of not only machinery, but also farm management automation technology. Now, for example, Rostselmash has Agrotronic, the remote monitoring system that allows checking where and how machines operate. We are engaged in transforming it into Farmtronic, the system that helps making decisions in agriculture. First, it will give advice and over time it will learn to make decisions independently. Farmtronic integrates performance analysis, resource planning, weather, satellite services and even agrochemical soil analysis capabilities.

What proprietary solutions under development in this area does Rostselmash consider to be promising?

The today’s area is the development of digital agriculture systems. In fact, the company has four large groups of tasks. They include telemetry and machine-to-machine communication systems, auto-steering systems, process automation systems, safety and emergency prevention systems.  This is computer vision, independence of travel, artificial intelligence, big data analysis technology. Rostselmash innovative solutions are already being used for soil preparation, application of fertilizers, sowing, treatment against diseases and pests, crop harvesting and forage conservation. Special attention is being paid to machine-to-machine communication solutions, including identification of implements, training of systems via neural networks, monitoring and analysis, as well as recommendations for machine operators, agronomists, managers. Digital solutions make up the Rostselmash ecosystem, i.e. the subsystems based on data acquisition allow not only facilitating the labour on earth, but also enhancing its efficiency on the basis of a number of findings and accurate forecasts – such that the machine is capable of.  

What technological solutions are ready for implementation?

F series forage harvesters is a good example. These are powerful and intelligent machines, very efficient ones. They may be optionally fitted with the system IQ-Dozer that is responsible for the automatic application of preservatives and selects them depending on the moisture content and temperature of the harvested crop and the combine harvester performance, thus assuring the quality of fodder and saving the preservative. Our grain harvesters are already being equipped with the interactive assistant Optimax. The system proposes to change settings to optimize the operation of the machine. All actions have been confirmed by the operator so far, however in the future we will switch over to a completely automated version. Another area is the system interface that is voice control. Now one will be able to address the electronic systems by saying: “OK, Anna”, these words sound similarly in most languages. It is very helpful when both hands are occupied, which happens very often in the operator’s work.