Escorts Automation Framework

After unveiling an autonomous tractor concept last year, Escorts is continuing to add to its framework.

- Bhushan Mhapralkar

The unveiling of an autonomous agricultural tractor concept last year by Escorts Agri Machinery created quite a buzz. It was not the first company to do so. What its effort stood out for however, was its quest for a automation framework that took a variety of operating conditions into account. Since then, Escorts Agri Machinery has continued to add to the framework. Claim industry sources, that the same is being done with an intention to further tune the concept into delivering scalability and a distinct cost advantage to the manufacturer as well as the end user. Working on it in close cooperation with its suppliers and other stakeholders like Microsoft, Wabco, Bosch, AVL, Reliance Jio, Samvardhana Motherson Group, and Trimble, the company, keen to get the concept closer to the production stage in another two years, is said to be looking at certain levels of automation that the buyers could choose from. In this regards, the concept tractor, which Escorts has christened as the ‘Smart Tractor’, hits the sweet spot. It continues to intrigue many in the tractor industry. Industry sources are anticipating it to be made available at Level-one or Level-two given the market’s ability to accept the proposition. Claimed by Escorts to be capable of performing ploughing and seeding operations on its own, the tractor concept, a proto, has at its core the ability to be highly flexible, modular and adaptable in terms of integration with other functional modules like the engine, braking system, steering system, and telematics, core automation control platform, and Power Take-Off(IPTO) among others.