3 Questions: Bobcat's Joel Honeyman

LAS VEGAS (DTN) -- It has been an eventful show for Bobcat at CES 2024, with introductions of four machines, innovations that are either electric, autonomous or both.

North Dakota-based Bobcat (member of the Doosan Group), put on display a new Bobcat S7X, a fully electric skid steer loader with highly innovative glass technology that Bobcat calls advanced display technology. It is a concept developed by Bobcat, in conjunction with LG Electronics and BSI Research. The transparent touch display allows operators to view both the jobsite and information about work being performed through the front cab windshield or side window. It's a concept and technology appearing all over the CES on cars and trucks. Bobcat is incorporating the work-planning and monitoring technology into its compact loaders, excavators and telehandlers.

Bobcat is also rolling out the industry's first autonomous articulating tractor at the CES, the AT450X, which is enabled by technology provider Agtonomy. The company also introduced an autonomous mower and the futuristic and cabless Rogue 2 Concept Loader -- all electric, which is autonomous and can be operated by remote control.

Agtonomy is based in south San Francisco and Sonoma County, California, and is a software and services company specializing in advanced autonomous and AI solutions for agriculture. The company focuses on addressing the challenges of labor scarcity, sustainability, and shrinking profit margins. Agtonomy says it embeds "smarts" in tractors and implements, driving digital transformation and offering commercial-scale solutions.

DTN/Progressive Farmer sat down at CES 2024 with Joel Honeyman, vice president of global innovation for Doosan Bobcat, to talk about these new products and technology evolutions of the machinery industry. Honeyman tells us he focuses on "connecting the dots" of emerging technologies to create solutions to address customer challenges.

Presented here are three topics we covered. Watch for the full interview in the coming days.

DTNPF: Why is Bobcat at CES 2024?

Honeyman: We know that new technologies are going to be required by our customers to make their jobs easier and what better place to do that than at CES. We're focused around three technologies -- electrification, autonomy and connectivity. Every week I get a call asking for applications of one of those technologies. There are solutions coming this year that use these advanced technologies.

DTNPF: Talk about the AT450X, what it brings to orchards and vineyards, even potentially to dairies and feedlot operations, and how it defines autonomy as a tool with a place on the modern farm.

Honeyman: This is an electric, autonomous articulating tractor. We've partnered with a company called Agtonomy to make it autonomous. It's really for orchards, vineyards, specialty agriculture, permanent agriculture to go up and down those many, many rows. You can put a mower on it, a sprayer on there, a cultivator on there -- all using a simple application called TeleFarmer. [The operator] just plots the points at the beginning of the headlands, maps out the area and sets it. It will do the operation. It's equipped with camera and vision systems and other technologies to show it where the rows are. It doesn't damage the rows, it gets to the end and turns around. You can use it for material transport, you can haul fruit, whatever the harvest, back and forth along the way. It's really cool technology and it will be in pilot form this year with some very large vineyards in California. This is a very simple setup on an iPad. You plot the points, plot the area you want to perform the operation. From that first point, it will [make] all the calculations to go up and down the rows. One person can manage multiple vehicles doing those operations. It's a labor saver.

DTNPF: Tell us about Bobcat's advanced display technology.

Honeyman: Think about using glass. Think about all the loaders, tractors, combines -- there is a lot of glass out there. Think about that glass as a display where you can display all sorts of information. We can display utilities, where they are at, obstacles -- in real time. Or, you can have different camera views around the machine to give [the operator] a better view of the worksite or field you are working on. It's a blank canvas for us, the possibilities are endless. If you look at the automotive industry, what we're seeing here at the CES, glass is becoming more and more a part of the view customers will use to see and process more information. You can use that same glass, it's a touch screen, and you can combine it with an autonomous portion we're developing. You can do path planning right on the glass.

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

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