CNH Industrial acquires machine vision company

CNH Industrial has announced Raven Industries will begin a strategic integration with Augmenta, a machine vision company.

The acquisition and integration is intended to expand CNH Industrial's automated technologies by adding "sense and act" capabilities for variable rate crop spraying applications.

"Augmenta's unique AI and vision-based perception technologies add a new, distinct value and scalability to Raven's industry-leading technologies," says John Preheim, vice president of product development for Raven. "We look forward to adding innovative sense and act capabilities to our products, further driving profitability for our customers."

Augmenta's variable rate solution (VRA) has a sensor to process field conditions and automatically apply the optimal amount of product for nitrogen, plant growth regulator, harvest aid, and fungicide — all based on the data it collects. The camera vision and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities are designed to be more sensitive than the human eye to automatically control precise application rates.

The system is intended to increase yields while reducing environmental impact and input costs, with savings displayed in real-time on Augmenta's web platform.

With the addition of Augmenta's VRA technology, Raven intends to create an easy-to-use package of automated spraying capabilities at a value-based price.

Augmenta's technology will be commercially available through Raven's aftermarket channels, with plans to develop and fully integrate the company into Raven's portfolio over the next few years.

For more information about Augmenta, visit Augmenta.ag.