Customer Profile: Headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, Sabanto is a system integrator that specializes in retrofitting existing agriculture machines such as tractors with autonomous technology. The company’s main focus is on the sod farming market where frequent mowing is required.
Business Challenge: Optimize position and navigation accuracy and reliability
Trimble Solutions:
Trimble BX992
Trimble CenterPoint RTX
Benefits:
Reliable positioning/navigation
Easy integration/configurability
Quick convergence and consistent performance
Global footprint; Available anywhere, any time
Farmers across the United States and around the world are looking to take advantage of autonomous solutions to increase productivity, minimize downtime, and alleviate worker shortages. In this drive for efficiency and productivity, there are few things more important to these autonomous applications than accurate navigation and positioning.
For Sabanto, an integrator that specializes in retrofitting existing agriculture machines with autonomous technology, it’s a capability that can make…or break…the value of its advanced solutions to its growing customer base. Over the past few years, the company has developed autonomous software and hardware that is purpose-built to operate the farmer’s most essential vehicle—the tractor.
Most recently, the company has worked towards mass production of the technology and hardware necessary for autonomous operations, and as Craig Rupp, founder and CEO of Sabanto, has been quoted, “A reliable correction signal is extremely important to keeping our autonomous machinery working around the clock.”
Early in the development of its navigation and steering solution, the firm relied on an off-the-shelf global navigation satellite system (GNSS) device provided by a third-party. It worked reasonably well, but it was expensive. Not long after, the third-party provider released a cost-reduced version of the solution, however reliability and availability quickly degraded and access to a range of cellular real-time kinematic (RTK) systems was limited, creating problems with steering system performance—and threatening the rollout of the company’s signature autonomous tractor solution, named “Steward™.”
RTK Rewind
Sabanto Steward technology incorporates what is now considered to be familiar solutions such as advanced onboard cameras, obstacle detection sensors, remote and on-tractor emergency stops along with GNSS positioning technology, all connected to the control unit.
The main control unit, essentially a black box that is linked to the GNSS receiver, connects to the tractor’s steering and power system. The software to operate the system includes Sabanto’s customized vehicle Path Finding Module®, a tool that defines the area of coverage, distinguishing between workable and non-workable zones. The vehicle Mission Control® platform then enables the farmer to separate jobs into smaller steps allowing different tractors to run simultaneously. Owners can monitor missions from any device in real-time and get alerts if there are unexpected conditions.
Unreliable GNSS performance completely disrupted Sabanto's autonomy kit roll-out. Cory Spaetti, chief operating officer at Sabanto, explained, “Among the challenges to the less expensive GNSS was that it would only connect to certain cellular RTK systems—and this happened at a time when we were trying to ramp up our production.”
Sabanto’s dealer, Ag Technologies, recommended they take a closer look at modern dual antenna GNSS receiver and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technology, in this case, the Trimble® BX992 GNSS receiver with Trimble CenterPoint® RTX correction service. The Trimble BX992 GNSS receiver with satellite-delivered Trimble RTX corrections is built to provide centimeter-level corrections via L-Band nearly anywhere in the world.
Spaetti and the team set out to test the capabilities in real farming conditions. He recalled, “We tested it in spots where it took our prior GNSS receiver a long time to converge, while the Trimble receiver locked on within a minute, providing high accuracy position data."
He believes the reason for this stable performance, faster convergence and reliability is in part due to Trimble’s backup service.
Continuous Coverage
Along with the Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction service, Sabanto takes advantage of Trimble xFill® technology, a solution that provides back-up corrections via satellite if RTK or virtual reference station (VRS) signal sources are interrupted due to signal disruptions or loss of radio connectivity.
“Our old receiver just couldn’t recuperate very quickly from signal losses,” said Spaetti. “With Trimble xFill, it is a totally different story. We get faster, more consistent and reliable positioning performance, critical for operational success.”
To maintain centimeter positioning with GNSS signals, the xFill service provides a specialized correction stream broadcast by MSS-band satellite that is generated using Trimble RTX technology. The Trimble ProPoint® high-precision positioning engine enhances the positioning accuracy of the GNSS receiver as well.
Spaetti summarized, “The overall receiver and corrections solution is a game changer for our autonomy kit and overall capabilities.”
The Sabanto team tested and integrated the Trimble BX992 and CenterPoint RTX into its autonomy kit in just a one-month period ending in August 2023 – and customers are already realizing the value.
Empowered Farmers
Currently, Sabanto supports a fleet of 75- to 240-horsepower autonomous tractors pulling a batwing mower that is used to mow sod farms and airports. The team can monitor multiple units working non-stop simultaneously with its advanced vehicle Mission Control platform. Thousands of acres were mowed throughout the past year by customers across the U.S.
One of Sabanto's clients, Super-Sod, deploys 11 autonomous tractors on various sod farms across the southeastern U.S.
Spaetti said, "Some of their farms are surrounded by trees, which can cause navigation issues. But with the current GNSS solution, it’s not a problem. This farming group particularly likes the ability to precisely navigate between fields and cover the desired areas efficiently, without the need for multiple operators. The field-to-field transit capability, enabled by the reliable GNSS performance, allows them to maximize their acreage coverage. ”
When asked about quantitative value, Spaetti points to another customer. In this case, the owner compared the cost per acre of using an autonomous system versus a human operator on a 24-foot wide mower. The autonomous system achieved a swath width of 23.75 feet, with an overlap of only 3 inches between passes. On average, a human operator on the same tractor would see an overlap of around 10% of the mower width, which is 2.4 feet. The customer also compared the autonomous system to using GNSS guidance with a human, which reduced the overlap to 2-3% of the mower width, or 0.5-0.7 feet. Based on factors like wage costs, fuel usage, and depreciation, the analysis found it was approximately $10 per acre cheaper to use the autonomous system compared to the human-operated mower with 10% overlap. Even versus the GNSS-guided human operator with a 2-3% overlap, the autonomous system provided around $7.80 in cost savings per acre, largely due to consistent engine performance.
A Workforce in Need
But it’s more than cost saving that autonomous solutions bring to the agricultural community—it’s a readily available workforce. Like other industries, agriculture is facing significant workforce shortages. One Sabanto customer has adopted the autonomous tractor solution to help alleviate some of these challenges. For this farmer, a mowing task that used to require three to four people now needs just one person.
“Finding labor these days is a real challenge for the industry,” said Spaetti. “It’s one reason why we’re expanding our capabilities to include virtual Field Operators where we provide a service to remotely deploy and monitor autonomous tractors for clients.”
Sabanto continues to adapt its autonomy kit to work on higher horsepower tractors and to increase compatibility with more farm equipment. The team is also partnering with implement manufacturers to add sensor packages and interface implements like planters/seeders with the autonomous system.
Spaetti concluded, “We’re always working to simplify the user experience while retaining high configurability. That means we need to make the technology as easy as possible for new and seasonal operators to learn, while we are looking for ways to leverage data analytics and improve offerings like yield mapping, variable rate applications, and insights for farmers. None of this could have been possible without reliable, accurate GNSS.”
