A need to move more data more quickly between farm implements and tractors has led to the development of a new standard for connecting them together.
The Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) has announced that connectors will use ethernet, which is commonly used in business and consumer computer networks, and will make data transfer 4,000 times faster.
WHY IT MATTERS: Farm equipment is increasingly data-driven, and connection infrastructure has not kept up.
“Driving that is primarily the desire to have cameras on the equipment,” said Ryan Milligan, who helps manage communications for AEF. Most of the major equipment manufacturers in the world are part of AEF.
More cameras are being added to equipment so farmers can see larger equipment from more angles. Cameras are also a critical part of partial and full autonomous operation, and fast movement of data to processors is important for safety.
Standards are important if farmers are to mix their tractor and implement brands, as most do. The first explosion of electronic data collection and control happened when ISOBUS standards were accepted across the industry at 250 kilobits per second speeds.
The first stage of standards, set in the 2000s, handled functions like planter, sprayer and fertilizer spreader section control, and GPS data.
A rapid expansion in data, sensors and cameras on equipment means new speed is needed.
The T1 ethernet standard was borrowed from the automotive sector, said Milligan, so the technology is already proven.
T1 ethernet can transmit a gigabit of data up to 40 metres in one second. With the new standard, video through ethernet and ISOBUS data will be able to be transmitted to the tractor, or to the implement.
That means farmers could be using multiple implements with cameras, from different companies, and feed that data into the monitor and processors of the tractor.
It won’t only be the hardware that’s standardized, but also the datasets, said Milligan at the AEF booth at Agritechnica.
Wireless transmission is also being standardized in a project in Europe that will let people in cars know that there’s a piece of farm equipment ahead of them on the road. BMW and Volkswagen vehicles already have this capability.
The AEF guideline is expected to become a documented international standard in 2026.
“It’s going to unlock use cases we haven’t even determined yet,” said Milligan.
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