Swapping a discharged battery for a fresh one to minimise downtime is a key feature of the all-electric Drever 120 four-wheel-drive autonomous tractor being developed by Swedish enterprise Traktorarvid.

The company’s goal, says co-founder Arvid Örde, is to produce a mid-size power unit that is one-third lighter than current operator-driven machines to minimise its impact on soil structure, while being big enough to handle meaningful field work.

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A simple articulated chassis is the chosen format for Traktorarvid’s second prototype, which has attracted almost £8m worth of funding within the framework of the EU’s European Innovation Partnerships (EIP-Agri) programme.

In addition to going towards construction of the new prototype, this will also fund development work and a two-year field test with technology partners and farmers.

Electric drive

The Drever 120 has electric power for propulsion and all services, including the electric actuators envisaged for the rear implement lift.

Control, guidance and communication systems are housed on the rear half of the chassis, leaving the front half, shaped like a tray, to carry the battery pack.

This is reckoned to provide between four and 12 hours of power depending on how demanding the work is – typically five hours on heavy cultivation, says Arvid Örde.

The battery pack casing’s top panel incorporates pallet fork slots, which enable a tractor loader or telescopic handler to swap them in the yard before towing the driverless machine to its next working location, or to change them in the field.

When not being used to run the tractor, the battery packs could provide solar energy storage for on-farm systems or feed power into the national grid.

Traktorarvid plans to build five pre-series machines for the test and evaluation program.