© Screenshot / dmitry.rogozin / Facebook
A video shared by the nation's space chief, Dmirty Rogozin, shows the harvester making turns and maneuvering while in "full autopilot" mode. The vehicle's operator is present in the cabin but has his hands down, not even touching the controls - the harvester's cutting-edge AI does all the driving.
"Combine drivers in Russia will lose jobs soon," Rogozin joked. "The accuracy of the field's cultivation is two centimeters."
The AI-equipped vehicle is capable of calculating its own routes, while collecting and analyzing various data on the surrounding environment.
The driverless combine was designed by NPO Avtomatiki, the company known for developing control systems for the Soyuz-2 rockets, used in space travel, and military ballistic missiles.
"The new system will cut the losses of fuel, grain, and time. The efficiency will go up by 10 percent," a senior official at the harvester's production plant told RBC in June, adding that the AI will make the operator's job a lot simpler.
Years ago when I was operating a 4WHD Versatile with a 33' rolling harrow, I just happened to look to the rear, keeping tabs on all the turning parts and soil conditions when I spied a dark streak down the center leading to the tractor. I killed the engine immediately, and discovered both hydraulic filters had blown off, and the pump had emptied all but a couple of gallons of hydraulic fluid. There's a lot more to harvesting than steerage. Since a combine is usually hydraulically motivated, what is the robot going to do on a hillside if the control manifold blows a seal (like happened to my FIL one day, and boy did he go for a ride!)? Another time the wishbone casting broke, dropping one corner of the combine into the dirt, totally destroying the axle stub.
Computers fail. Sensors fail. Actuators fail. Power systems fail. Nothing like an organic, live computer that can adapt to virtually any unforeseen condition.