Field performance evaluation of autopilot and manual steering systems operations of a tractor-mounted soil ECa sensor in oil palm plantation / Mohammad Anas Azmi

Nowadays, the advancement of precision farming continuously reshapes the landscape of agricultural operations productivity. Precision farming gives many benefits to the farmers’ community in managing and monitoring their farmland by using modern equipment and technologies. The autopilot steering system is one of the precision farming technologies in the driving of machinery that has been implemented in modern driving modes of tractors in developed countries. However, further evaluations of this system become a prime interest, especially in regards to its application in the areas which are different from its country of origin. Thus, this study evaluated the operations of tractor-mounted soil ECa sensors with manual and autopilot steering modes on immature oil palm areas. A New Holland TD5.75 tractor with an engine power of 75 horsepower equipped with a Trimble autopilot-automated steering system was used in the study. The tractor pulled a Veris 3100 soil ECa sensor to measure the soil ECa at the study area. A combination of ArcGIS with Microsoft Excel was employed to develop a simple approach for evaluating the straight-line accuracy of the tractor when moving with an autopilot steering system. The results showed that both steering modes generated slightly different patterns of spatial variability on the interpolated soil ECa maps. However, autopilot steering mode consumed lower human energy expenditure of operator at 0.44 kcal/min as compared with the manual steering. Besides that, it also offered a higher effective field capacity of operation with 5.13 ha/h compared with the manual steering. The error in positioning straight-line accuracy of the operation of the tractor-mounted soil ECa sensor with autopilot steering was at average 7.78 cm that indicating an acceptable range of straight-line error. Conclusively, the operation of the tractor with autopilot-steering showed good results to be implemented as an alternative tractor’s driving system for operating the Veris 3100 soil ECa sensor on immature oil palm areas. In general, this technology had a great potential to be introduced in the Malaysian oil palm plantation industry in an effort to enhance the infield operations with the up-to-date technology and create more enjoyable working environments in the plantation.