New Holland’s Awesome Intellifill™ System
With the latest technology being incorporated into farming equipment, agricultural processes have become more streamlined and precise. That doesn’t mean everything is as optimized as it can be. As a market leader, New Holland is constantly looking for ways to make farming an easier process and its Intellifill™ system does that beautifully.
At Boehm Tractor Sales, we know that farmers are always interested in the technological breakthroughs that enhance their production. With that in mind, we’ve written this article to help you understand how the New Holland Intellifill™ system can benefit your farming enterprise. To find out more or to check out some great harvesters and trailers for sale, come to our dealership in Shiner, Texas. We invite all our patrons from Seguin and Austin to get in touch with us today!
Before The Intellifill™ System
Nowadays, machines like New Holland’s forage harvesters can harvest crops at weights of over 300 tons per hour while cutting them into tiny pieces, as small as 4mm in size. This no doubt has made the work of farmers easier. However, while they’re steering and maintaining the harvesters at optimal speeds, operators also have to direct the flow of the produce into a trailer while keeping an eye on how full it’s getting. This simultaneous nature of the tasks makes a tough job even harder.
Standard video cameras didn’t prove right for the job as they were not good at measuring distances, detecting trailer shape and size, and tackling conditions like dust, peak brightness, and darkness. Using 3D near-infrared cameras improved the distance measurements, but it was hard to make rapid changes that arose due to the real-world conditions. Testing and debugging required great amounts of time that were delaying the ultimate goal.
The Intellifill™ System Creation
For its Intellifill™ system, New Holland used a model-based design to speed up the trial and usage steps. A 3D camera was mounted on a harvester spout, and from this they gathered and calculated data. The resulting algorithms were then made part of a controller model. The controller now received data from the camera and sent out signals to control the movement of the spout, the direction of flow, the angle of the camera, and audio-visual alerts to the operator. The New Holland team used Computer Vision Toolbox™ to monitor the 3D camera and note any problem areas.
After they had developed a basic plant model, closed-loop simulations of the trailer filling process were conducted. The next step was to get everything ready for the field tests. After extensive testing, all algorithms were improved and optimized. They then had the New Holland Intellifill™ system ready for production for their latest harvesters and trailers.
How The Intellifill™ System Can Help You
At Agritechnica, Europe’s largest agricultural fair, the New Holland Intellifill™ system won the gold medal for technical innovation. This is one of the highest awards in the agricultural industry and winning it shows how much of an impact this new technological development is going to have on farming. With the Intellifill™ system, operators can now drive the harvester while filling the trailer with a high degree of accuracy.
The 3D camera-based Intellifill™ system is engineered to automatically detect the trailer edges and monitor the filling process, increasing the focus on crop flow and in-field progress. Crops can be discharged with great accuracy up to a distance of 20 meters even when visibility is limited. This system requires no manual calibration, eliminating the need for farmers to undertake complex and time-consuming procedures.
Not only does the Intellifill™ System increase productivity significantly, it also enhances operator comfort when they’re not required to keep looking over their shoulders. On long days, when dusk turns to dark, you can count on your Intellifill™ system to guide the spout automatically and reduce crop spillage and the need for manual labor to assist the harvester.
We hope this helped you to understand the New Holland Intellifill™ system and how it’ll improve life on your farm. If you’re looking for a harvester and trailer, come to Boehm Tractor Sales in Shiner, Texas, and check out our inventory today! We’re proud to serve the areas of Seguin and Austin!