Russian Farming Machinery Manufacturer to Equip Combines With AI for Autonomy

Autonomous vehicles are coming to farms faster than to roads, partly because such environments are more structured and less crowded and thus safer to automate. Cognitive Pilot last week announced that it is working with Bryanskselmash, one of Russia's leading agricultural equipment manufacturers, to serially equip combines with artificial intelligence. The partners claimed that their agreement is the world's first production-line OEM contract for autonomous combines.

Moscow-based Cognitive Pilot is a joint venture of Sberbank and Cognitive Technologies Group. Starting this month, Bryanskselmash will include Cognitive Pilot's AI system its PALESSE GS12 combine harvesters.

"We have already conducted large-scale field tests of the Cognitive Agro Pilot system installed on our PALESSE combines," stated Andrey Shilin, chief engineer at Bryanskselmash. "These works were carried out both in Russia and Belarus. Following the results, we have decided to equip KZS-1218 DESNA-PALESSE GS12 combine harvesters with Cognitive Agro Pilot system as a standard."

"We expect that the availability of artificial intelligence in our combines will improve their competitiveness, increase sales, and provide farmers with a good tool to significantly improve the efficiency of harvesting," he added.

Cognitive Agro Pilot uses a single camera

The Cognitive Agro Pilot autonomy kit for agricultural equipment. Source: Cognitive Pilot

Cognitive Agro Pilot is an autonomous driving system for farming equipment such as grain combine harvesters, tractors, and sprayers. It includes an autonomous unit to manage farm equipment, a video camera, a display, a set of connecting cables, and other control system elements.

The user interface is available via an Android mobile app for smartphones or rugged tablets.

The AI system analyzes images from just one video camera, according to Andrey Zuev, public relations and marketing executive at Cognitive Pilot. By using a deep learning convolutional neural network fine-tuned for agronomic purposes, it can understand the types and positions of objects facing the machinery, build movement trajectories, and send commands to perform maneuvers.

Cognitive Agro Pilot precisely sees the environment around the equipment and works without satellite signals and real-time kinematic (RTK) corrections, the company said.

The system can reduce harvesting time by an average of 25% and reduce direct crop losses from 8% to 13%, said Cognitive Pilot. It can increase the daily output of a machine operator by up to 25%, it said.

With the help of Cognitive Agro Pilot, as many as 590,000 metric tons of grain crops -- including wheat, soybeans, barley, oats, sorghum, and buckwheat -- were harvested from more than 130,000 hectares (321,000 acres), said Cognitive Pilot. Some 130,000 metric tons of row crops and roll crops such as corn and sunflower were harvested from over 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) in various regions across Russia.

In September 2020, Cognitive Agro Pilot won the "Overall Harvesting Innovation of the Year" award at AgTech Breakthrough Awards 2020.

Cognitive Pilot nurtures global partnerships

Cognitive Agro Pilot can provide positioning without GPS. Source: Cognitive Pilot

From June to October 2020, more than 350 New Holland, John Deere, and Claas autonomous combines equipped with the Cognitive Agro Pilot system farmed more than 160,000 hectares (395,000 acres) of fields and harvested more than 720,000 tons of crops.

"Bryanskselmash is a real trendsetter, one of Russia's leading enterprises actively introducing innovative solutions into its products," said Olga Uskova, CEO of Cognitive Pilot. "From now on, the world's first mass-produced agricultural robots, equipped with Cognitive Pilot AI, will roll off the factory's production line. This is a significant bid to expand company's market share not only in Russia, but also abroad."

The parties plan to expand joint marketing and other activities for their joint offering and to expand its geographical reach.

In addition, Cognitive Pilot and Rosagroleasing, the country's largest state-owned agricultural leasing company, have announced their first leases for AI-based farming equipment. They said this will make Cognitive Agro Pilot available to a wide range of agricultural businesses seeking to improve their efficiency, including both small and midsize enterprises.