After winning the EIMA 2018 Technical Innovation Award, the ADS has grabbed the spotlight in Spain as well, winning over a jury of professionals to claim the title of “Maquina Inovadora” at the sixth edition of the agricultural trade show held in Valladolid.
“We are very satisfied”, commented Andres Moradas, Director of Agri Argo Iberica, Argo Tractors’s Spanish branch, “because these awards confirm our group’s great commitment to research and development as it seeks to improve the performance, comfort and safety of our tractors. It is the foundation of our corporate mission, and the Advanced Driving System is a concrete result of these efforts”.
Advanced Driving System is an innovative hybrid driver assist system that employs cutting-edge mechatronic technologies to assist operators in manoeuvring both in field and road operation, that makes steering stiffer as a function of speed and automatically returns the front wheels to straight-ahead after a headland turn.
The new technological solution guarantees full compatibility with the satellite guidance systems developed by Topcon Agriculture, allowing the memorisation and control of wheel positions when working on sloping land and ploughing in-furrow, and offsets the effects of external stresses on steering accuracy. The system also assists the operator while driving on the road or at high speed thanks to the steering stiffening system, which automatically engages to a degree proportional to the tractor’s speed. This new technology further reduces the driving performance gap between a tractor and a normal road vehicle.
In addition, the operator can easily manage implement settings from a single terminal, as the monitor configuration automatically changes according to the functions used.
Optimal efficiency in field operation is ensured by a multi-function all-in-one joystick controlling hydraulics (up to 7 electro-hydraulic spool valves), electronic 2 management of daily hours of operation, field and service registers via Landini Fleet Management protocol, as well as by the availability of real-time remote diagnosis. All of this can be conveniently managed from the tractor fleet manager’s desk.
Introducing this technology brings many advantages. Firstly, the operator is free to concentrate on implement functions, while the tractor ECU takes care of driving, recording hours of operation, consumption and service requirements thanks to the IoT service, a world première in specialty tractors. Additional advantages benefit the fleet manager, who relies on a web platform to manage maintenance scheduling and troubleshooting, while maintaining a record of a tractor’s workload, efficiency and service history.
