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These Futuristic Machines Are Nothing More Than Autonomous Agricultural Beasts of Burden

Thousands of years ago, a group of humanoids started to experiment with a way of cultivating food that would ultimately become the standard for how we operate in our society. I’m talking about farming, and millennia later we’re stepping away from traditional methods and simply employing robots to do all the work.
AgBot 2.055W3 9 photos
Photo: AgXeed
AgBot 2.055W4AgBot 5.115T2AgBot 2.055W3AgBot 2.055W4RTK GNSS SystemsAgBot 2.055W4AgBot 2.055W3AgBot 5.115T2
Yes, folks, the machines we’ll be exploring today are nothing more than autonomous hunks of steel designed to plow, seed, and even cultivate your yearly crops, assuming you own or work acres of land for your financial stability. Even if you don’t, the fact that the three machines we’ll explore today look like something ripped out of some sci-fi flick makes them even more interesting.

Now, the way I discovered these three machines was simply by asking myself the question of what’s at the top of the agricultural technology game, and AGXeed is the crew I happened to run across first. Nonetheless, this Dutch start-up deserves the right to attention because here they are, completing their second year of activity in this business, and that means something in such a cutthroat industry.

So far, three solutions are available to agricultural and farmland owners, the AgBot 2.055W3, the 5.115T2, and the 2.055W4, but my favorite, simply based on how it looks, is the 2.055W3. Just look at it! It’s built like the sort of machine we’ve seen in movies and cartoons where we’ve glimpsed possible futures. Nonetheless, these things are anything but fantasy.

AgBot 2\.055W4
Photo: AgXeed
Depending on the work your self-directing machines undergo, owners will be looking at Deutz diesel engines with varying capacities and abilities. The W3 and W4 feature the same 2.9-liter motor with 75 hp and a maximum torque output of 300 Nm (221 ft-lb). But, if you want to take a step towards eco-friendly goodness, electric PTOs can be installed optionally as for the beefier T2 machine, a 4.1-liter engine pumps out 156 hp and 610 Nm (450 ft-lb) of torque.

Now, there’s no point in me telling you about how these buggers can shift their track size to cultivate larger or narrower rows, but it should help to know all about the brains behind the machine. To ensure your bots are precisely where they need to be, AGXeed equips each one with RTK GNSS systems, guiding your seemingly brainless hunks of steel to within 2.5 cm (1 in) of their target. Imagine waking up and looking out into the distance and crops being lined up perfectly. Ah, the satisfaction.

AgBot 5\.115T2
Photo: AgXeed
Diving deeper into these trinkets, because the human interpretation of movement through a field is no longer part of the equation, the AgBots continuously collect and analyze field data and relay it back to a digital dashboard that owners have on their smart device, tablet, or PC. Best of all, you can manipulate certain parameters while your bots are out there, and even program them to draw you a crop circle if you feel like it. Sure, the latter isn’t efficient at all, but with a tad of programming work, you can pull it off. All that you need to do after is simply check the cameras and diagnostics to ensure everything is moving smoothly.

As we can see, agriculture is no longer managed in the same way that it has been for thousands of years, and frankly, that’s a good thing, because if you’ve ever sat out in a sun-ridden field for eight hours, you know just how hard this sort of work is, and to have some autonomous cats doing it for you is just so much better. But what about these things “taking our jabs!?” That’s a story for a different time. For now, let’s soak in the wonders of modern technology and what we can do with it, feed the masses.
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Editor's note: Images in the gallery include all three AgBots from AgXeed.

About the author: Cristian Curmei
Cristian Curmei profile photo

A bit of a nomad at heart (being born in Europe and raised in several places in the USA), Cristian is enamored with travel trailers, campers and bikes. He also tests and writes about urban means of transportation like scooters, mopeds and e-bikes (when he's not busy hosting our video stories and guides).
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