Photo belongs to TopAgrar
German highly respected magazine TopAgrar has provided results of the FieldBee autosteer system test in the December 2020 issue. Fieldbee tractor autosteer system from eFarmer BV was tested by TopAgrar over a year as a cost-effective retrofit alternative for tractor autosteer. FieldBee system is available in different stages of expansion: as a parallel driving aid, with or without RTK; with automatic lane guidance via steering wheel motor and most recently also via a hydraulic steering valve. All variants have in common that they are using WiFi for connection and transferring data between system components as well as the use of Android based smartphones with steering and record keeping applications.
Set up
At the beginning for testing was provided with a FieldBee mechanical autosteer system with L1 GPS RTK receiver (first generation of receivers made by eFarmer). The idea was to test the system with connection to local NTRIP provider SAPOS. During the first iteration was recognised the problem that NTRIP base station was located beyond the rich L1 receiver (more than 10 km). As well as some issues with stability of Wi-Fi connection were identified. eFarmer has recognised the issue and provided a new FieldBee L2 GPS RTK receiver with a higher range of coverage and more stable connection. This receiver has successfully connected to the nearest SAPOS point and allowed active high precision of steering. The issue with stability of Wi-Fi signals was solved with an external Wi-Fi router that farmer can place in the tractor cabin.
Photo belongs to TopAgrar
Here are some highlights from the article:
- The Fieldbee steering system is quite cheap as for a system with RTK accuracy. It allows for the accuracy of a few centimetres.
- The steering wheel motor works quietly and steers the tractor properly on the track. Though the manual steering was very stiff (note by eFarmer: this can be adjusted in steering system settings).
- The system is using software on the Android tablet. There were some issues with the software during the test. But eFarmer constantly improves application via updates.
- The system without a steering angle sensor was working properly at a speed of at least 2 km/h. A top speed – there is no any. It is nice that steering is working also when you are reversing.
Photo belongs to TopAgrar
Read the full version of “Let it be steered – but cheap” article by Florian Tastowe
Conclusion
We appreciate the feedback that we are receiving from farmers and in this case from TopAgrar magazine. We take into account all the issues that were identified and put them into our road map. We aim to create the easiest, reliable and affordable steering system for farmers. The architecture of our solution allows us to make improvements via updates and upgrades. So FieldBee autosteer will continue to get better and better as more and more farmers are using it and helping us to improve it.
