Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

MK-V Smart Tractor - Fully Electric, Farmer Optional

Monarch introduces the MK-V smart tractor, fully electric and fully autonomous.

Bay Area-based Monarch has sold six units of its zero-emissions Founder Series MK-V to leading wine, spirit and beer producer Constellation Brands.

It’s being claimed that the MK-V has the potential to reshape agriculture as we know it thanks to its use of electrification, automation and data analysis to help farmers reduce their carbon footprint, improve safety, streamline operations and increase profitability.

What Monarch terms its “driver optional” functionality comes via a suite of autonomous and robotics hardware and software tech, including the Nvidia Jetson edge artificial intelligence platform. This enables the MK-V to perform pre-programmed tasks without a driver – or allows an operator to implement “shadow mode,” which sees the tractor follow a worker performing a task.

Several tractors can be remotely operated by a single individual at any one time, which is hoped will help to address an alarming shortage of tractor drivers in the industry.

But the functionality goes well beyond that. The MK-V’s deep learning suite allows what might be considered autonomous farming, with crop data collected, analyzed and processed daily thanks to an array of sensors and cameras, some of which are 3D.

The visual data can be used to assess long-term yield estimates, current growth stages and more. In addition, the tractor remains constantly connected, via a smartphone or other device, for status alerts, operations reports and data updates.

(Via IOTWorldToday)

Scientifiction writer Otfrid von Hanstein wrote about the idea of farms with machines capable of running themselves in his 1935 story The Hidden Colony:


(Conscious autonomous farm robot)

Machines that seemingly with full consciousness walked out into the fields to do their daily work. And even now there was no living being among them save myself... Had these machines in some incredible fashion been provided with brains?
(Read more about autonomous farm machines)

As far as I know, the first reference in science fiction to an electric tractor is in World of Purple Light by Warner Van Lorne, published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1936.

A small electric tractor was working at the far side, and a slight hum could be heard from where he sat.
(Read more about the electric tractor)

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/29/2022)

Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )

Related News Stories - (" Agriculture ")

MK-V Smart Tractor - Fully Electric, Farmer Optional
'A small electric tractor was working at the far side, and a slight hum could be heard from where he sat.' - Warner Van Lorne, 1936

Vertical Farm In Singapore's Output Is 1.5 Tons Per Day
'A towering eighty-story structure like the office "In-and-Out" baskets stacked up to the sky.' - Pohl and Kornbluth, 1952.

Mashambas Skyscraper Farm Design Wins
'...a towering eighty-story structure like the office In-and Out baskets stacked up to the sky.' - Poh and Kornbluth, 1952.

Self-Driving Tractors From China Plan Ahead
'Machines that seemingly with full consciousness walked out into the fields to do their daily work.' - Otfrid von Hanstein

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

Is Agentic AI The Wrong Kind Of Smartness?
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'

Heat Waver - The First Ever Combo Solar Collector And Wind Turbine
'...like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'

Tesla 'Fleet Response Agents' Bolster FSD Autonomy
'You hate the whole idea that some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre has got your life... in his hands.'

Mori3 Autonomous Shapeshifting Robot
'My homeland is being threatened by the Replicators. Thus far all attempts to stop them have failed.'

Tesla Seeks 'Tesla Robotaxi' And 'Robobus' Trademarks Ignoring Prior Art
'A robobus had just rolled up to the curb.'

Scary Grid Safety Robots
'The ultimate horror for our paranoid culture...'

Does AI Provide A Way Forward For Talk Therapy
'And there in the next room by the sofa sat a familiar suitcase, that of his psychiatrist Dr. Smile.'

Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'

Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'

Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'

Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'

Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'

Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.

'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'

Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'

Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.