The Case IH autonomous concept tractor is one of the winners of this year’s prestigious GOOD DESIGN Award. The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. GOOD DESIGN Awards recognize the most innovative and cutting-edge industrial, product, and graphic designs produced around the world.
Case IH first unveiled the world’s first high-horsepower, cabless autonomous concept tractor at the Farm Progress Show in 2016, marking a revolutionary step forward in tractor design. The tractor was designed by the in-house Industrial Design Center at CNH Industrial and is based on the current Case IH Magnum series tractor (185-380 horsepower). The concept’s design was focused on both form and function, reimagining the tractor for a future autonomous era by eliminating the traditional operator cab.
“This award marks a satisfying conclusion to the celebration of our 175th anniversary,” says Andreas Klauser, Case IH brand president. “The autonomous concept tractor is perhaps the best illustration of how we are living up to the anniversary’s tagline – Celebrating the Past by Looking Toward the Future.”
After the reveal at the Farm Progress Show in August 2016, the tractor was shown at trade shows and events in France, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia. “Over the past year, we have used this concept tractor as a way to kick off a dialogue with our customers as to what the future of farming will look like in five or ten years’ time,” Klauser explains.
“From talking to customers in different countries, we see that for the near term, they want to have the flexibility of still having a cab on the tractor. This is the direction we are taking because we want our customers to feel comfortable as they begin to delegate more tasks to the machines themselves,” Klauser says.
“We have already begun to see some of the applications of this concept study being applied in our current lineup — such as AFS AccuTurn and there are more introductions on the horizon.”
Advanced Farming Systems (AFS) AccuTurn takes the guesswork out of turning on headlands with automated headland-turning technology powered by software logic from the autonomous concept tractor. This next-generation AFS autoguidance technology provides hands-free, automatic, and repeatable turns for increased productivity, improved accuracy, and reduced operator fatigue.
“We will see more AFS product content in our offering to come in 2018,” Klauser says. “We are excited to be starting a pilot program with an evolved concept that incorporates the feedback from customers’ reactions to the concept, as well as additional testing. We are working with a key customer with intensive tilling applications to thoroughly test the implementation of this technology.”
