How Do Tractor Autosteer Kits Work?
Autosteer for tractors has been around for just over 25 years now. Since its beginning there have been many improvements to autosteer to aid productivity and reduce costs for farmers. But how does our FJ Dynamics autosteer actually work?
Autosteer can either work on “autosteer ready” tractors or can be retrofitted. Autosteer ready tractors utilise a hydraulic valve to steer the tractor whereas retrofit kits currently use an electric motor and a new steering wheel. FJ Dynamics will shortly be releasing a hydraulic retrofit autosteer kit which includes the required hydraulic valve and removes the need to change the steering wheel.
So now we know how the tractor is directed by autosteer but what system does it use in order to actually drive in straight lines? It uses GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) or as it’s more commonly known, GPS (GPS is a type of GNSS). The autosteer kit has a GNSS receiver on the roof which receives the GPS satellite signal and processes it to work out the tractors position. This data is then sent to the steering wheel via the control box (or screen) and it corrects the tractor’s position as it drives through the field. This can be in a straight line or a curved line and can be used to turn the tractor round when you reach the headland.
The next question may be how accurate can autosteer be? This depends on the type of technology used. The first option is SBAS (satellite based augmentation system). In the UK the variation of SBAS used is EGNOS. This is a free correction signal which the FJ Dynamics team have managed to use to get accuracy down to 5-10cm. The alternative option is RTK.This is the most precise option offering sub-inch accuracy. RTK can be used in 2 different ways.
The first is a fixed base station. The base station is placed at a point with known coordinates (it uses GPS positioning for this). It then sends correction signals to the GNSS receivers on the tractor. This is the recommended choice for farmers who work in a ring fenced area as they have a range of 5-8 km. The second option is to use a 4G RTK subscription through someone like RTKFnet. This is a yearly subscription with a sim card which works in a similar way to the fixed base station with the main difference being there is a network of the RTK bases. The autosteer kit can connect to up to 3 at once meaning if one drops out it will still work. This is the recommended choice for contractors or farmers with multiple areas with a bigger area than 5-8 km.
So clearly when it comes to choosing an autosteer kit there are multiple things to think about:
- Is your tractor autosteer ready?
- Would you rather use electric or hydraulic steering?
- How accurate do you need to be?
- What area are you going to be working on?
- After that you can look at different add-ons such as ISOBUS – allowing you to run ISOBUS implements through your FJ Dynamics autosteer kit utilising variable rate and section control and also Auto u-turn which takes your field and maps and then drives the most efficient route.
For more information about different autosteer options and specifically the FJ Dynamics kits please drop us an email at info@balebaronuk.com or give us a call on 01403 887720