California's coolest cart
California's coolest cart
Autonomous
farming: one of the first self-driving machines in the specialty crop industry
is proving itself among a select group of California farmers – with promising
results. Danfoss supplies the digital brain making it possible.
Location: Kern County, California, USA
Location: Kern County, California, USA
“We often have difficulties hiring enough qualified pickers during the harvesting season. Most growers experience this. Autonomous grape carts will help us fill this shortage of workers gap,” says Parminder Brar.
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Slowly,
silently, effortlessly. The self-driving – or autonomous – grape cart does not necessarily attract much attention as it drives through the rows at Parminder Brar’s
900 acre family farm in Kern County, California. But it has a big effect.
Parminder has volunteered to test the cart at his table grape farm this harvesting season. And his verdict is clear: the cart not only makes the workday for his seasonal employees a lot easier. It also drives up productivity.
With the cart, brand-named Gopher IQ, between the rows more human hands can focus on picking. They simply fill up the autonomous cart with boxes full of ripe table grapes as it passes.
Parminder has volunteered to test the cart at his table grape farm this harvesting season. And his verdict is clear: the cart not only makes the workday for his seasonal employees a lot easier. It also drives up productivity.
With the cart, brand-named Gopher IQ, between the rows more human hands can focus on picking. They simply fill up the autonomous cart with boxes full of ripe table grapes as it passes.
“We often have difficulties hiring enough qualified pickers during the harvesting season. Most growers experience this. Autonomous grape carts will help us fill this shortage of workers gap,” says Parminder Brar.
Goodbye bumpy ride
This marks a big difference compared to the traditional method. Here, a member of each
picking crew collects the grapes in a wheelbarrow which he or she manually
pushes through the rows.
“The rows are 100 meters long. Pushing the wheelbarrow is a dusty, sweaty job eating up a lot of time which this cart enables us to spend picking grapes instead. We have six picking crews working in teams. If we had three or four carts for each crew, we would get a huge productivity boost,” says Parminder Brar.
He adds that the carts seem robust and reliable easily navigating around any obstacles.
“The rows are 100 meters long. Pushing the wheelbarrow is a dusty, sweaty job eating up a lot of time which this cart enables us to spend picking grapes instead. We have six picking crews working in teams. If we had three or four carts for each crew, we would get a huge productivity boost,” says Parminder Brar.
He adds that the carts seem robust and reliable easily navigating around any obstacles.
One of the first ever
One of the first ever
“We are very satisfied cooperating with Berendsen Fluid Power and Danfoss,” says Justin Meng. “The functionality and robustness of the control system they have designed is phenomenal.”
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The Gopher IQ carts fulfill California startup Vinergy’s goal: to increase profitability for farmers of hand-picked specialty crops – table grapes, blueberries, peppers, and others – with new, rechargeable electric machines.
The company was founded in 2019 launching a semi-automatic version of the cart the same year. And now they are about to hit the market with the self-driving version – one of the first-ever autonomous vehicles in the specialty farming market.
Justin Meng, President and CEO at Vinergy, says:
“I am extremely proud. With the Gopher IQ autonomous cart, we can improve productivity for an average picking crew as much as 30 percent. This translates into real savings for the farmer. It also frees up available hands. And this is key right now as farmers across the US wrestle with labor shortages and rising wages.”
The plan is for the carts to be available on a rental basis for a monthly fee that includes service. Vinergy aims to have the first 60 to 75 carts available next harvesting season and to ramp up from there.
The company was founded in 2019 launching a semi-automatic version of the cart the same year. And now they are about to hit the market with the self-driving version – one of the first-ever autonomous vehicles in the specialty farming market.
Justin Meng, President and CEO at Vinergy, says:
“I am extremely proud. With the Gopher IQ autonomous cart, we can improve productivity for an average picking crew as much as 30 percent. This translates into real savings for the farmer. It also frees up available hands. And this is key right now as farmers across the US wrestle with labor shortages and rising wages.”
The plan is for the carts to be available on a rental basis for a monthly fee that includes service. Vinergy aims to have the first 60 to 75 carts available next harvesting season and to ramp up from there.
“We are very satisfied cooperating with Berendsen Fluid Power and Danfoss,” says Justin Meng. “The functionality and robustness of the control system they have designed is phenomenal.”
Danfoss brain inside
Danfoss brain inside
“We see great potential for autonomous solutions across the specialty agriculture market. We aim to continue working with Danfoss in this area. Their training, support, and product understanding is fantastic,” says Mike Kelley.
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And they
are ready at Berendsen Fluid Power – the company that Vinergy teamed-up with to
design the cart’s electric drive and control system which includes components
such as batteries, electric motors, and advanced sensor technology.
Danfoss has supplied the intelligent display DM1000. It includes a powerful computer with the company’s flagship software PLUS+1® Guide inside, in this case customized to fit Vinergy’s exact needs. The computer and software together make up the digital brain converting sensor signals to physical movements, thereby enabling the cart to navigate the grape rows autonomously.
“The software part of autonomous driving is difficult. Reliability and safety are incredibly important. It is relatively untrodden territory, and few companies master it. Danfoss does. Partnering with them, we were able to bring this solution to market fast. And we are ready for a ramp up,” says Mike Kelley, Mobile Sales Director, Berendsen Fluid Power.
Danfoss has supplied the intelligent display DM1000. It includes a powerful computer with the company’s flagship software PLUS+1® Guide inside, in this case customized to fit Vinergy’s exact needs. The computer and software together make up the digital brain converting sensor signals to physical movements, thereby enabling the cart to navigate the grape rows autonomously.
“The software part of autonomous driving is difficult. Reliability and safety are incredibly important. It is relatively untrodden territory, and few companies master it. Danfoss does. Partnering with them, we were able to bring this solution to market fast. And we are ready for a ramp up,” says Mike Kelley, Mobile Sales Director, Berendsen Fluid Power.
“We see great potential for autonomous solutions across the specialty agriculture market. We aim to continue working with Danfoss in this area. Their training, support, and product understanding is fantastic,” says Mike Kelley.
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California's coolest cart
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