US company Sabanto says its retrofit autonomy technology will work with planters fitted with the Precision Planting Gen 3 20|20 system from the spring 2027 season, letting a retrofitted tractor plant with no operator in the seat while each planter row is monitored, Farms.com reported on 29 October.
Driving a tractor on its own is only part of autonomous planting: farmers also need to know that every row unit and the seed delivery are working. Sabanto will link its Vehicle Operating System (vOS) with the data the 20|20 measures, such as population, singulation and ground contact. If a row moves outside a tolerance set by the grower in Sabanto's Vehicle Mission Control software, the system can notify the operator, pause or respond in another way the grower chooses. The 20|20 keeps control of seeding, rate control, prescriptions and as-planted records, and growers with a Panorama subscription can view its data remotely.
Founder and chief executive Craig Rupp said feedback from growers showed that trust in the planter, more than making the tractor drive itself, was the main hurdle. "This gives them that confidence and peace of mind with the equipment they already trust," he said.
Rather than selling a purpose-built autonomous machine, Sabanto retrofits existing tractors, connecting to their steering and power systems and using GNSS, cameras and obstacle-detection sensors. The system is sold through selected US dealers, and the company says using machinery farmers already own helps cut capital costs while easing labour pressure.
Photo: Lynn Betts, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Source: Farms.com
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