CAAIN provides key funding for autonomous tractor kit

The Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network (CAAIN) is highlighting results of the agtech research & innovation projects it is supporting through its 2022 Open Competition and its Beef & Pork Primary Processing Automation & Robotics Program.

Darrell Petras, CAAIN’s CEO says through the program they look for Canadian companies that are developing technology that will provide significant value to Canadian farmers through artificial intelligence.

An Edmonton-based company Mojow Autonomous Solutions has developed an Autonomous Tractor Kit for Enabling Autonomous Farm Implement Operation.

CAAIN is contributing over $682 thousand to the $2.2 million dollar project that will result in the commercialization of truly autonomous equipment. 

Mojow’s EYEBOX platform will allow operators to “fire and forget” their sprayers, seeders, and planters. 

In other words, once the job has been programmed into the unit, the tractor it controls will drive itself to the field in question, navigating any roads or entrances it encounters along the way, making the necessary passes, and returning to its starting point without any additional human interaction.

Mojow President, Owen Kinch is a grain farmer who worked off-farm to feed his spirit for technological innovation.

He spent seven years in SeedMaster’s R&D department, before becoming the first employee of the company’s autonomous vehicle spinoff, DOT Technology Corp.

Kinch met his friend and eventual Mojow co-founder, Mojtaba (Moji) Hedayatpour at DOT.

CAAIN notes that autonomous agtech is widely viewed as a key to reducing the agri-food sector’s reliance on increasingly scarce labour.