Agricultural machinery corporations Daedong(000490) said on the 1st that the artificial intelligence (AI) tractor "HX1400-AI" was designated as a new-technology agricultural machine by the Rural Development Administration.
The technology designated this time is the "vision AI-based Level 4 Autonomous Driving tractor platform" installed in the HX1400-AI. It consists of autonomous driving automation technology using a vision AI recognition model and autonomous task remote control technology through an application (app).
Conventional autonomous driving agricultural machinery focused on moving along routes entered into the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). In contrast, the HX1400-AI uses cameras and an AI processor to independently recognize and analyze the surrounding farm work environment, including fields, implements, and obstacles.
Daedong is advancing the HX1400-AI as a "software-centric, evolutionary tractor" whose functions and performance can be enhanced through software updates. By using over-the-air (OTA) software updates, new autonomous task and convenience features and improved AI models can be applied without replacing equipment.
In August, for the first time since the product launch, an OTA was carried out to add convenience features related to autonomous tasks.
Since its launch, the HX1400-AI has been deployed mainly by professional farmers and farming corporations for tasks such as plowing rice paddies and fields, rotary tilling to level soil, and hilling to mound soil around crops.
The new-technology agricultural machinery designation is a system that comprehensively evaluates performance, quality, and technological and economic ripple effects for agricultural machines that feature technology developed for the first time in Korea or that innovatively improve existing technology.
Products designated as new-technology agricultural machinery are eligible for benefits such as priority purchasing by local governments and public institutions, as well as government subsidies, loan support, and preferential treatment in public procurement participation.
Gam Byung-woo, head of development at Daedong, said, "The goal of the AI tractor is to shift the operating methods at farm sites—which have relied on skilled workers' experience and concentration—from driving automation to an AI-centric approach," adding, "People will manage and control the system, and we will advance the technology so that AI compensates for differences in skill level and field conditions, thereby improving agriculture's productivity and sustainability."