TThe rising dust from the harvester pulling in the barley on a hot summer day is a familiar image, but what happens when there is no worker on hand to harvest the crop? What is clear is that the increasing food demand of a growing population, combined with a continuing skilled labor shortage can only be met by an increase in autonomously operated systems.

In the intralogistics market, the topic of autonomy has been at the center of developments over the last years. This know-how can now be applied to automate repeating tasks within the daily agricultural work. Dosing, gripping, adjusting, placing - these are all tasks which are all performed both in industrial environments as well as in agriculture. Whether it is handling plastic granulate or seed, raw material or harvesting foods, the material product is not of importance for the technology behind the application. As a result, existing concepts from industrial automation can be easily transferred to agricultural technology.

This is where Dunkermotoren has focused its efforts and offers many years of experience. Smart BLDC motors with integrated electronics have been used for the operation in autonomous guided vehicles in the intralogistics for many years and can now be used to realize the smart farming concept with just slight adjustments to withstand the harsh environmental conditions in agriculture.

The base of autonomous agricultural robots

The basis for the autonomous execution of motion tasks are decentralized controllers and the networking of cloud-based platforms. Intelligent electric motors with CANopen or Ethernet interfaces provide crucial data for the robot's movement. Thanks to movement parameters defined in advance, the analysis of this data results in the desired reaction of the robot.

In which situation the robot must perform, drive or position in which way is defined via its MotionCode. MotionCode, Dunkermotoren’s motor control program, drives the robot and tells it what tasks it must perform or what position to move to. It is running directly on the integrated electronics of the motor that are built into the gearmotor housing, thus saving valuable space in the design of the bots.

Programming is easily done in C or can be taken over directly by Dunkermotoren specialists from the IIoT brand nexofox. If several robots are in use, nexofox also allows the monitoring of entire fleets. Friction, wear, travelled and planned routes can thus be precisely evaluated. In the event of planned maintenance, the current location and the state of your system can be precisely determined.

Thanks to cloud connection and the integration into existing systems, data access is possible remotely from any location.

You can concentrate on your core business, while Dunkermotoren and nexofox take care of the rest. This way, we jointly contribute to the realization of new Smart Farming concepts and make sure that the rising food demand is covered in the future - despite a shortage of skilled workers and a growing population.

TEnergy Efficiency as extra Benefit

Imagine a farming or feeding robot on your networked farm of the future. What must your system look like in terms of functionality?

In addition to autonomy, future-proof concepts must be space-saving and withstand the harsh environmental conditions on the farm for the long term. To meet the increasing requirements in the area of energy efficiency, operation should also be as energy efficient as possible.

Since the electronics of the smart Dunkermotors are integrated directly into the motor housing, the agricultural robots can be designed to be particularly compact. In addition, the electronics take over wide areas of data monitoring and evaluation, which results in free computer capacity of your overall system and energy savings with the same range of functions.

There is yet another advantage however: By integrating them into the motor housing, sensitive electronic components are protected from environmental influences. The housing itself is made of steel or aluminum. Thanks to optional coating, the entire drive can achieve a protection class of up to IP69K. This makes your autonomous system ideally suited for use in barn or field work.

Last but not least, the electric motors have a high power density, which means that small motors with high efficiency can be used. This reduces the energy requirements of the agricultural robots, allowing them to travel further distances and providing you with true cost savings.

Whether in animal farming or in tough field applications - let us work together to realize robust and trend-setting solutions for agriculture.