R-Connect farmpilot - premiere at Agritechnica 2017

Sittelsdorf / Hannover. At Agritechnica in Hannover ROPA along with Farmpilot presented a comprehensive systems solution for networking all parties involved in order data management in sugar beet harvesting and transport logistics.

R-Connect farmpilot is an intelligent networked and company-independent farm and logistics management system offering significant increases in efficiency in sugar beet logistics. The system-independent networking provides immediate planning and order data to all parties involved without transmission errors. The live transmission from the machine terminal with presentation of harvesting settings, sensor values and playback function is setting new standards.

Networking of all parties involved in order data management in sugar beet harvesting and removal logistics

Agritechnica 2017 innovation - a collaborative development by ROPA and farmpilot

■ The farmer records the data of the beet cultivation areas in the sugar factory farmers' portal (area, desired position of piles, desired time of harvesting, contractor/harvesting community)

■ The scheduler of the loader creates the transport plan in the sugar factory's beet logistics system

■ The sugar factory transfers the farmer's data (farmer's name, farmer's number, field name, field number), incl. transportation plan to the farmpilot server

■ The transportation plan is automatically transmitted to the contractors and harvesting communities as the basis for the harvesting plan

■ The harvester's scheduler has the option of changing the transmitted harvesting plan in the farmpilot portal and to add external orders at any time, e. g. biogas beets

■ The harvester's driver starts a harvesting order in the farmpilot app. The app automatically transfers via Wi-Fi the farmer's name, farmer's number, field name, field number, driver's name and driver's number to the ROPA R-Touch terminal, in which a new harvesting order is also started simultaneously. No manual data input or operation at a second display is required, thus transmission errors are consequently excluded

■ The scheduler can track the progress of the order in the farmpilot web portal at any time, including on the move with a tablet

■ The GSM connection from the R-Touch terminal to the ROPA R-Connect server allows all essential machine states to be displayed and fully documented in virtual real time during harvesting

■ As soon as the driver of the harvester finishes the current order in the farmpilot app, the order is also automatically completed in the R-Touch terminal, thus no manual entries are required at the R-Touch terminal

■ All billing-relevant data of the finished order (harvested area, efficiency, consumption, share of empty runs, harvesting speed, ...) are transmitted from the R-Connect server to farmpilot. The quantity of beet harvested in the field is also recorded and transmitted, including positions of the beet piles at which the bunker was emptied

■ In the farmpilot, the operator of the beet harvester determines which data are transmitted to the schedulers for transport planning

■ The data from the ROPA beet harvester enable very detailed transport planning (including previous cover of beet piles) as well as adjustment of the continuing harvesting plan in farmpilot

Agritechnica innovations

■    Convenient, fault-free and time-saving operation on the sugar beet harvester
■    Selection of orders on the map, no risk of confusion of customers and fields
■    Current progress in harvesting can be displayed at any time
■    Billing-relevant data are available for schedulers shortly after the harvesting order has been completed
■    Once the order has been completed, harvested beet quantity is documented for further transportation and marketing planning