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Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

thedrive.com

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Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#21

Post by jcims »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #13
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Progress yes, but at a peak of 70hp it won't be plowing much more than a hobby garden. Autonomous operation is all well and good but expect resistance. Look at how many farmers are injured by tractor equipment. They will rightly fear driverless tractors.

This thing isn't meant to pull your 8-bottom plow attachment. It isn't the tractor a large-scale wheat or corn farmer is going to use to work the fields. Those tractors generate hundreds of horsepower and cost $250k. But there is plenty of market for a small utility tractor, and the people using those aren't all hobby farmers. You don't use your massive 500 hp John Deere 9630 to stack hay bales or cultivate your row…

>cost $250k

for reference here’s the used market for one of their larger tractors: https://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/farm-equipment/for-sal...

Some combines just for the fun in it: https://www.tractorhouse.com/listings/farm-equipment/for-sal...

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#22

Post by bryanlarsen »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #13
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Progress yes, but at a peak of 70hp it won't be plowing much more than a hobby garden. Autonomous operation is all well and good but expect resistance. Look at how many farmers are injured by tractor equipment. They will rightly fear driverless tractors.

This thing isn't meant to pull your 8-bottom plow attachment. It isn't the tractor a large-scale wheat or corn farmer is going to use to work the fields. Those tractors generate hundreds of horsepower and cost $250k. But there is plenty of market for a small utility tractor, and the people using those aren't all hobby farmers. You don't use your massive 500 hp John Deere 9630 to stack hay bales or cultivate your row…

Autonomy is the game changer here. For $250K you can buy 5 of these little tractors and draw 5 12ft cultivators rather than a single 60 footer. Drive one manually to mark the headland and let the other 4 fill it in.

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#23

Post by bri3d »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Progress yes, but at a peak of 70hp it won't be plowing much more than a hobby garden. Autonomous operation is all well and good but expect resistance. Look at how many farmers are injured by tractor equipment. They will rightly fear driverless tractors.

There are a lot of operations that use midsized utility tractors extensively. This certainly won't replace a large tractor in wheat, hay, corn, and soy (plowing, disc, mowing, bailing, etc.) but can definitely replace utility tractors in orchard/vineyard spraying, CSA and organic farm style mixed-crop cultivation, etc. Think more California than Nebraska.

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#24

Post by throwaway894345 »

gambiting wrote: post #3
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Progress yes, but at a peak of 70hp it won't be plowing much more than a hobby garden. Autonomous operation is all well and good but expect resistance. Look at how many farmers are injured by tractor equipment. They will rightly fear driverless tractors.

Uhm.....I'm pretty sure my family has been plowing fields(and I do mean fields, not hobby gardens) with our trusty old Ursus C330[0], making a whole 30 horse power. Not sure why 70hp would be a problem. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursus_C-330

American fields are larger, so American farmers can take advantage of larger plows for better efficiency; however, larger plows require more power from the tractor.

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#25

Post by bryanlarsen »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Progress yes, but at a peak of 70hp it won't be plowing much more than a hobby garden. Autonomous operation is all well and good but expect resistance. Look at how many farmers are injured by tractor equipment. They will rightly fear driverless tractors.

Before electric motors, factories used to have a single giant coal engine that used pulleys and crankshafts to distribute that power all across the factory. When electric motors became available, they replaced that single giant coal engine with a single giant electric motor.

They got their lunch eaten by people who built new factories with electric motors at every station, distributing the power using wire.

These tractors are autonomous, you can have multiple tractors per operator. 5 50hp tractors are probably cheaper and more capable and easier to run by a single operator than a single 250hp diesel monster.

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#26

Post by jelliclesfarm »

I invited the CEO to my farm and we had a chat about their plans. I am impressed that they launched exactly what he said that they would...it seems to me that they are the only ones in the Agrobotics market(and I know/have spoken to 15-17 of them worldwide) who can scale because they have a solid plan and can ramp up. And they will be affordable. They have ticked all the boxes that create the (manufacturing) bottlenecks for every other Agbot start up/company out there.

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#27

Post by salty_biscuits »

asutekku wrote: post #19
whizzkid wrote: post #17

+ Really good idea to make use of the electricity in other ways than just driving. (generators, lamps, etc.) + 10 hours covers up a good day in field. - a lot of farms are away from electricity sources to charge and sometimes internet connection is non-existent. It is risky to leave a 50k machine on its own to do its job. And what to do if battery runs out on the field? - how long does it take to recharge? A lot of f…

Charging overnight + installing solar panels near the fields will solve problem. Of course it’s easier said than done, but changing processes will lead to the solution.

It would be perfect if the autonomy worked well in the dark, then it could just work at night and then charge during the day.

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#28

Post by AnimalMuppet »

pjc50 wrote: post #15
sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Progress yes, but at a peak of 70hp it won't be plowing much more than a hobby garden. Autonomous operation is all well and good but expect resistance. Look at how many farmers are injured by tractor equipment. They will rightly fear driverless tractors.

Surprisingly large number of tractor injuries are overturning when operating on steep slopes, a category easily avoided by not having a driver.

It would be nice if the electric could detect that circumstance (overturning) and shut itself off...

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#29

Post by mu5tach3 »

GlenTheMachine wrote: post #8

No front-end loader. Less torque than a John Deere. Lame. \s

The informations are quite rare, but one of their Youtube videos mentions "the ability to connect a front load" (https://youtu.be/xcpi4vR-_44?t=334)

Re: Electric Monarch tractor can plow a field without a driver and run for ten hours

#30

Post by Yetanfou »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

Progress yes, but at a peak of 70hp it won't be plowing much more than a hobby garden. Autonomous operation is all well and good but expect resistance. Look at how many farmers are injured by tractor equipment. They will rightly fear driverless tractors.

Both tractors I use have around 68hp on the engine, ~65hp on the PTO. Both have front loaders, one of them has an excavator on the back. I run them in the fields (mowing, turning, baling, etc.) and in the forest (logging, skidding, forwarding, etc.). Tractors do not need huge engines to be useable on the farm, this is only needed for 3-swathe mowers, 10-row ploughs, high-speed baler/wrappers etc.
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