Bonsai Robotics’ Teletrace helps connect all farm equipment, provides growers with data to better monitor and manage mixed fleets.
Bonsai Robotics recently launched Teletrace, a connected farming platform to support the company’s autonomous solutions as well as what Bonsai co-founder and CEO Tyler Niday calls a “rainbow fleet” of mixed equipment.
Niday says the telemetry platform helps those growers with a mixed fleet to better understand fuel consumption, spray volumes, etc., on their operation in one central location.
“What we saw was the growers were loving it for autonomy,” he says. “Not only do you have this autonomous operation, but you can track the chemical consumption for an air blast spray job. It’s really the first step to not only run autonomous operations but to trace all your data back to one central hub.”
Teletrace is powered by the Topcon CL-55, a compact telemetry device that plugs directly into the existing CAN bus. The Topcon CL-55 transmits data to Topcon’s CloudLink service, which then integrates into Bonsai’s cloud platform so growers can monitor and manage every piece of equipment through the Teletrace program.
“This is a really low-cost solution with the hardware we selected through our partnership with Topcon,” he says. “They’re a tried-and-true player in this space. And with this hardware, we really can make this rainbow fleet come through without additional sensors.”
Niday says the Teletrace platform can show every meter of a tractor in use, gallons per acre of crop protection sprayed, fuel consumption, maintenance issues, engine data and harvest data — all to help growers better understand their operation.
“You get a lot more insights outside of just the basics, but the basics offer insight for the grower to improve efficiency,” Niday says. “And if you get 10% savings, that’s huge just from data.”
Niday says this is just the beginning for growers.
“The ultimate goal is to be able to track the almond or the strawberry or the grape from the grocery store back to the field and have all the Intel and information,” he says. “With our autonomous applications and the ability to not only run through the field but look at every tree and being able to in the future trace what’s happening from a visual perspective, back and out of the field as well, I think, is the next big step where things can get really, really interesting.”
AG WEB