John Deere Electronics has made its Vision Processing Units (VPUs) available to European OEMs.
The system is specifically designed to operate within harsh and demanding environments, having been tested in agricultural conditions on John Deere’s See & Spray application technology.
It uses a 1TB solid-state NVMe drive and an Nvidia core processor to provide real-time image and video processing, with Linux OS, 12 camera connections with power over coax, four CAN ports, two digital inputs and three outputs.
According to the company, it is ideal for autonomous navigation, situational awareness and obstacle avoidance, delivering productivity in the field.
It can handle multiple high-resolution camera inputs and consolidate data in real-time, as well as use advanced algorithms and machine learning to assess conditions and trigger automated actions.
Kerry Koisti, who works in business development at John Deere Electronics, says, “What we usually do at John Deere is look at the marketplace for solutions and if we don’t find one that works for what we want to do, our electronics unit designs and builds the product we need. Once it’s in production, we consider offering it to other OEMs as hardware, providing tried and tested technology with John Deere quality and robustness, and enabling innovation in new applications. As autonomy continues to evolve, on-board computing for real-time perception, navigation and decision-making is likely to play a much greater role.
“The VPU is really rugged and has been developed to solve a real-world challenge. The flexibility of the system is pretty incredible in terms of types of problems it can solve, and it builds on decades of knowledge and experience in outdoor mobile machinery. We believe lots of European companies could benefit from this technology. The VPU enables real-time decision-making in the field, and we provide expert guidance to ensure smooth integration with their systems.”