i3 - November/December 2018 - 10

Q What tech areas do you think will
most significantly impact farming in the
coming years?
A The challenges associated with farming are not going to ease over the coming
years, so we'll continue to see growth in
smart technology such as AI and machine
learning on the farm. AI and machine
learning will become as core to Deere as
engines and transmissions are today. In
fact, we have a camera sensor on board our
new S700 Combine Harvester that uses a
convolutional neural net to moditor harvested grain quality and make recommendations to optimize other settings to ensure
the best outcome. Think about that - John
Deere has machine learning systems in
production, in customer hands today.
We envision a world where agriculture
machines not only navigate without human
intervention, but they will perform millions
of micro jobs per day better than a human.
By continuing to automate more and more
machine elements of the operation, the
farmer will be able to focus on other, nonautonomous parts of the business.
Machine learning and computer vision
technology will begin to open the opportunity to farm at an individual plant level.
Machines will be designed to sense,
understand and tend to the needs of every
plant, maximizing yield and productivity,
and reducing costs. Data will play an ever
more important role. We'll see more precise
and actionable data generated from the
equipment that will not only help improve
analysis and better decisions by the farmer
but will also help drive the machine learning and autonomous systems I mentioned
already. Finally, as autonomy increases, we'll
see more and more farmers interacting with
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

their farm through intuitive user interfaces
outside of the machines on the field. I
recently met a farmer who said he expects
to manage his entire farm from his smartphone by the time he is 40. He is 35 today.

Q When did John Deere first move into
digital farming?

A John Deere has consistently pushed the

boundaries of what's possible with technology
on the farm, starting with the introduction of
our first mechanically powered tractor 100
years ago. More recently, we ushered in the
first elements of autonomy to the farm 20
years ago with the acquisition of NavCom,
where we integrated highly-precise GPS
navigation and self-driving technology into
our tractors and other equipment. This was a
groundbreaking development which enabled
farmers to focus on the other key elements of
their operation such as setting adjustments
taking place in the cabs of our equipment,
rather than focusing on driving in a straight

line. We've since elevated this technology to
equip farmers with machines that not only
drive themselves but have the flexibility to control other machines and make smart decisions.
In addition to focusing on other elements of the operation, one critical benefit
of this technology is having data on things
like the exact positioning of where seeds
are placed, year-over-year, in a geo-spatial
map which enables a level of actionable
insight not previously attainable. The insight
gleaned from this documentation, spanning
20 years in some cases, has enabled more
precise job automation and will be foundational as we continue innovating.
The introduction of IoT was another major
disrupter for the farming world, and we've
delivered wireless, data and sensor technologies to simplify operational decisions, enable
machine-to-machine communication and aid
in fleet management. A great example of this
technology in action is our remote service
capabilities, which enables John Deere

credit

a breakthrough, and while we are a couple
years away from full production, we see great
promise in this technology and for many other
Deere machines. Together, we're helping
farmers move from making and implementing decisions at a field level to addressing the
needs of each individual plant.
This strategy and vision puts Deere in a
unique position to offer software engineers, machine learning engineers and
data scientists an opportunity to work
for a company that is not only developing cutting-edge technology but helping
transform one of the only industries that
impacts every single person in the world.

Photography by Seth Lowe

Tech

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i3 - November/December 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - November/December 2018