The developer of a so-called “autonomous tractor” said people all over the world are coming to see it. But he said the concept is changing.

Terry M. Anderson and his Autonomous Tractor Co. are presenting the Spirit Tractor as a diesel, electric-power “platform,” fitted with various tools to become an “autonomous implement” that doesn’t require a driver on board.

The company is technically based in Fargo, but its research and development facility and offices are in St. Michael. Anderson is also working on other concepts — self-propelled grain transports, planters — and eventually self-propelled combines.

And if that seems far out, consider that he and colleagues are developing “sprayships.” These are autonomous aerial spray drones, each equipped with eight propellers that hover and will spray a farmer’s fields for various crop pests, even at night. A generator on the trailer will create energy for the drones.

Anderson first described his Spirit Tractor concept to Agweek in March 2012 and brought it to the Big Iron farm show in Fargo in September, ostensibly to demonstrate it. Anderson expected to build the company’s first production model by July 1, 2012, and expected to build 25 more in 2013.

A demonstration last week was a simple movement of the machine from its garage bay, a few feet into the parking lot, and then a return. The machine seemed to move haltingly at times, Anderson said, because some of the track parts had been improperly adjusted.

“Everybody wants to see it pulling a planter or pulling a chisel plow,” Anderson said. “We’ve used it to pull the truck we haul it on, so there’s a lot of weight on it. We’re able to measure the drawbar horsepower. We’ve been testing it from a load standpoint. We’ve never cared much about showing from a standpoint of tilling. We want to have it (developed) to the point where it can be sold and won’t come back” as unacceptable.”

Here to Help Farmers

Anderson, 70, a native of Greenbush, Minn., made a career as an entrepreneur, building seven companies. He said his primary company was sold for $1.8 billion. He says he’s not hurting for money, and making money isn’t his primary interest in developing machines for agriculture or his partners.

“I’m here because I think I can help farmers and the rest of us are here for that very reason,” he said.

After retiring “for about a week” in 1999, Anderson started working on other things.

“I was bored stiff,” he said. He and a group of friends started studying the need and workability of autonomous power for farmers and other applications — especially those short on labor.

Anderson said he and other investor-owners have put $8 million into the “autonomous” equipment since 1999, and are putting $100,000 a month into the project. So far, nothing is ready for the market.

Two Missions

The farm tractor company is really two, he said.

Area Positioning System Inc. develops the integrated guidance system for the machinery. The company is looking for partners. Companies such as Trimble Navigation Ltd., TopCon Positioning Systems Inc. and Raven Industries have looked at the system, but no deals have been made.

The separate company, Autonomous Tractor Co., develops the diesel electric drive system — the motors and running systems, including the tracks, motors and diesel generators.

The company is looking for licensees for this part of the technology. Anderson is willing to license the diesel electric drive technology to an implement manufacturer — probably not one of the majors — and then will sell them the integrated guidance system to control it.

“We are going to partner with somebody, but we haven’t selected anyone yet,” Anderson said. “We have a lot of offers in the U.S., Canada and overseas. A Canadian group has told us they have a plant emptied for us to move in, so we can start manufacturing.”

Anderson said if the company is to sell the machines into the farm equipment market, it would probably have to charge about $200,000. It would maybe take $100,000 in parts to build it.

Building 1,000 of the machines would cost $100 million. He said he thinks the company will pick a potential partner in July.

Size, Convenience

Anderson said his ideas are in demand because of the lack of qualified farm labor, the need to make farm machines smaller for transport and the need to cut weight for compaction. He said some of the autonomous machines will need to be shepherded by farmers who can see problems and anticipate counter-moves, which even sophisticated machines cannot.

The grain transport would take the place of a conventional grain cart, except it is an autonomous platform fitted with a 400-bushel cart. That sounds small to farmers who use 1,000-bushel carts, but the transport is more efficient, Anderson said. He thinks it’ll go up to 30 mph, go directly to and from the combine, and doesn’t need some of the turnaround space that traditional tractor/trailers require. He is arranging for an auger to be made at Westfield Industries Ltd. in East Rosenort, Manitoba.

“The intent of it is that we actually move grain faster than a 2,000-bushel grain cart,” he said. He said the machines won’t be as heavy as a conventional cart, which he says causes compaction problems. He said grain combines use only 70 percent of the fuel that tractors do when they’re servicing a combine with a grain cart, so it should save fuel.

“The biggest combine out there has a 400-bushel grain hopper,” he said. “So that’s what it’s intended to do — take a full hopper when it’s convenient for the combine and take it to the truck and unload it and get back to the combine again.”

Ongoing Visibility

The research center has hosted numerous groups from across the country. A hallway displays articles from publications near and far, including Europe. A group of 27 from Australia is coming on July 3, he said. He sees potential markets in Brazil, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine.

He recently spoke In Waterloo, Iowa, at a John Deere event that included 300 engineers.He said John Deere is also working on autonomous, self-propelled implements and that something will be available within several years.

Separately, Anderson talked to members of the “FamilyFarms Group,” a coalition of farmers, in Phoenix, in 2012, who are intrigued by a driverless option.

“What we concluded is that an autonomous, self-propelled implement platform was going to take a lot of different shapes,” he said. “And we decided we have to deal with corn” as a main target market crop.”

Static Display

Even though the machine was a static display at Big Iron, Anderson described the show as a success.

“We got a lot of valuable information at Big Iron about things we could update,” he said.

He had lots of conversations with manufacturer representatives.

Anderson acknowledges that some Big Iron officials expressed disappointment that the machine wouldn’t be part of the event’s famous field demonstrations.

He said he hadn’t been to ag shows before so didn’t know what would be expected.

He said he’d consider coming back to Big Iron, but he isn’t sure whether the event can accommodate his company’s needs — “our own area where we can set up the testing of our equipment,” he said. The event had wanted a line-up with the other tractors on the market, and perhaps some kind of “drag race.”

“Originally when we started working on this, we concluded that the future is autonomous implements, not tractors,” he said. “But to prove the technology, we decided we’d slap together a tractor. And that’s what we did. We were quite surprised about the response on that, the reception from everybody including people like John Deere.”

He said the phase one model of the tractor, available at Big Iron, was changed immediately after the show, but doesn’t say how much. He notes company officials are working on monitoring motor temperatures, including cooling liquids and the windings of the motor.

“We’re spending 2013 to find out what U.S. agriculture wants to do about us,” Anderson said.

He expects the Spirit Tractor to be displayed prominently at the Wright County Fair in Howard Lake, Minn., July 31 to Aug. 4. It’ll be a static exhibit — both the autonomous tractor and the autonomous grain transport. He said the Nebraska Corn Growers Association wants to create a special show just for the Spirit Tractor.

If he returns to Big Iron, he thinks he’s going to bring the planter with at least one shredder module and one planter module on it. If all goes well.