Challenges of Digitalizing the Harvesting Process
Managing a large agricultural fleet is a task that, as the business scales, exceeds the capabilities of manual control. When the fleet includes more than 1,100 vehicles, from combine harvesters to weighbridges, tracking every trip, every unloading, and every receipt without errors becomes practically impossible. This was exactly the challenge faced by a client who turned to an integrator for a solution to automate harvesting campaign business processes.
Problems of Manual Control and Gray Zones
Part of the client's equipment was already fitted with sensors, but monitoring and operational reports were not configured. The client tracked only fuel, while the situation in the fields remained a gray zone: combine harvester unloading was digitalized only at the weighbridge, at the final stage of the chain. A huge volume of manual work went into reconciling carrier waybills, harvester operator forms, and weighbridge documents. The daily titanic effort of verifying all trips, unloadings, and receipts was inevitably accompanied by errors in calculations due to the human factor.
Lack of Transparency in Driver Identification
Machine operators and drivers did not use driver cards during the harvesting campaign, making it impossible to obtain confirmed information about when, where, and how many bins were unloaded by which driver. The absence of accurate data on the harvesting process meant that management operated on mere assumptions about how everything actually worked. This created conditions for product theft and unproductive time spent resolving disputes.
Solution: Digitalizing the Process at Every Stage
The integrator proposed a solution for harvest control from field to weighbridge. The essence of the project was to digitalize the process at every stage — from the field to the weighbridge. The problem of driver identification was solved with a wireless tag: drivers and machine operators did not need to leave the vehicle cabin. In the monitoring system, specifically in the TRON program, the entire harvesting process could be viewed and controlled in real time.
Audit Phase and Identifying Needs
In the first phase, a system audit was conducted jointly with the client to identify the main requests for digitalizing the harvesting process. During the audit, key needs were determined: control of the auger, that is, the issuance of crop to the carrier; control of threshing; control of factory bin level sensors; and carrier verification during unloading. To optimize the harvesting process, it was decided to test two identification methods — contactless and contact-based. During contact-based unloading, the driver's card is applied to a reader installed on the combine harvester.
Equipment Testing in Real Conditions
The client recognized the need to allocate time for connecting and verifying the operability of equipment and the system across the entire fleet ahead of the season. In the autumn of 2023, during the harvesting campaign, the client provided equipment: one weighbridge, four carriers, and five combine harvesters. The presented fleet was equipped with Galileosky 7xC trackers with external antennas, UHF readers on the combine harvesters, and wireless UHF tags for carrier identification. A total of nine vehicles, including the weighbridge, participated in the test. Over several months, testing was conducted, checking all necessary settings and making adjustments where needed.
From Test to Selecting the Optimal Technology
The system recorded all the necessary indicators, allowing the harvesting chain to be tracked: unloadings and weighings. The client understood the progress and speed of harvesting based solely on dashboard indicators. To control auger activation, several equipment connection options were used, including via CAN. The connection method depended on the specific make and model of the combine harvester. This made it possible to eliminate unauthorized dumping of product from the bin.
Selecting the Carrier Identification Method
During the test, nine violations were recorded at various stages of the harvesting process. To obtain detailed information about each one, the client could select the item of interest. Most violations were related to contact-based carrier identification, because real harvesting conditions were created during field work, and it turned out that compliance with the protocol of applying cards to the reader was inefficient. After conducting a series of trips, it was determined that contactless identification was the optimal option. The principle was as follows: UHF readers were installed on the combine harvesters, and wireless UHF tags were placed on the carriers. When a carrier approached a full combine harvester, the system automatically determined that an unloading was taking place. A similar algorithm was triggered at the weighbridge.
Project Results
Implementing the crop control system from field to weighbridge delivered measurable results already at the testing stage. A comprehensive approach to digitalizing the process made it possible to eliminate manual data entry into the system — all information is automatically pulled in and displayed in reports. Yield forecasting became available, enabling more accurate planning for the following year.
Yield Improvement and Theft Prevention
Yield increased by 2 percent solely thanks to the test, comparing the figures from the previous year provided by the client. With the equipment of the entire fleet, an even greater increase is expected. The system correlates the number of unloadings from the combine harvester with the weight recorded at the weighbridge. The elimination of illegal product dumping was achieved thanks to data from auger sensors, and comparing readings in weighbridge and bin reports helps prevent theft during transportation from the fields to the warehouses.
Contact: sales@galileosky.com
