HOUSTON — In an era of agriculture that features new technology each year, it can be complicated in a tractor cab. That's particularly true if multiple brands are being used at the same time.
“The electronics for each manufacturer weren’t using the same architecture,” said Ryan Milligan, North American communications and marketing-team leader for the Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation. “They were completely different. You had this slowly growing number of monitors in the cab — cab clutter — that was becoming untenable for the farmer.”
In an effort to make things simpler for farmers, the foundation hosted a “Plugfest” event at Commodity Classic. More than 100 software engineers along with other industry professionals met to plug their technology into various brands’ monitors to see what works and what software may need to be changed to create a more-universal fit for everyone in agriculture.
Milligan, also the director of business development for Powell Electronics, said having a standardized system is important for the industry and for accessibility.
“We need to get a standardized system, like a USB, but for large tractors,” he said. “What they did was standardize the connectors, and now they are working on creating common data protocols so the implement and tractor can communicate regardless of brand. Interoperability is really the theme of the organization.”
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The event resembles speed dating in a way. Tables are lined up, with a row of people moving from person to person at hour-long intervals. They plug their software or implement into the other’s operating software to see what works and what kinks need to be ironed out.
“We have several tractors here — about a dozen different models — and the different implements will make sure they are communicating,” Milligan said. “If a farmer decides he’d really like a new baler from Case-IH but his tractor is a CLAAS, they are making sure he can connect it together.”
The event has been going for almost 13 years in both Europe and North America, with North America’s event routinely traveling with Commodity Classic. Milligan said the European event often has larger attendance, with as many as 170 participants. This year’s North American Plugfest was one of the best attended so far.
“A mixed fleet is more common in Europe,” he said. “But the tipping point has happened in North America. We have about 70 different pieces of machinery matching (here), so there are hundreds of combinations we are testing. I would say this one is probably one of the top two or three in North America. We continue to see it grow.”
Milligan said the ultimate goal is to make all software and implements “plug-and-play” with each other.
There has been a switch in what technology they see at the events. Initially much of the focus was making GPS technology work cohesively between brands. Milligan said now there has been more innovation in the area of tractor implement management as cameras and sensors begin to allow for more-automated systems.
“There’s all this data these implements are collecting and in real time they can tell us to slow down,” Milligan said. “We are giving the operators the ability to not have to process that information themselves and make it more intuitive and adjust itself as it goes.”