On Tuesday, TASS reported that the Russian agricultural sector has now begun to see the mass-introduction of AI-based (artificial intelligence) autonomous tractors, according to the developer Cognitive Pilot.
Responsible for production of the Cognitive Agro Pilot autonomous driving system for agricultural machinery, which uses AI technologies, the company says that its AI-driven systems have no analogs in the world. It predicts that using its machinery to perform automated tillage could enhance productivity by as much as 25% while preserving up to 20-40% of the materials used, such as fertilizer or seeds.
The company’s press service said to TASS that, “Cognitive Pilot summarized results of operations for tractors equipped with the AI-based Cognitive Agro Pilot system in Russia. Smart machinery tilled more than 2.3 million hectares in total.”
The report noted that between March and November, there were 312 tractors equipped with the Cognitive Agro Pilot introduced to Russian farms. Over that time, the use of the tractors has saved farmers, on average, 2.6 million rubles ($28,700) per field of 1,000 hectares, for a total savings of 5 billion rubles ($56 million).
The developer noted this was the first wide-scale deployment commercially of AI tractors in Russia.
Cognitive Pilot CEO Olga Uskova said, “We have received a very strong result. Actually, our smart machinery has worked for slightly more than a third of the season, and the results confirm the high potential and prospects of using our robotic tractors.”
Cognitive Pilot was formed in November of 2019, when Russian state-run bank Sber teamed up with Cognitive Technologies to form the new enterprise, which specializes in the use of Artificial Intelligence to produce unmanned technologies for transport, agriculture, computer vision, and other applications. The deal provided a 30% stake in the new enterprise to Sber, with the remaining 70% of the company to belong to the founders and management of Cognitive Technologies.
Cognitive Pilot has made the list of strategically important companies in the Russian economy since 2022. The company has noted its products are presently in use in a total of 13 different nations.
