New Hexagon technology ensures precision in planting with excavators

Hexagon's Agriculture division — which develops digital agricultural and forestry solutions — is launching a new technology focused on improving accuracy in shovel planting. With the help of sensors that indicate the position and orientation of the machine and the inclination of its rods, the software points out the displacement and positioning necessary for the seedlings or the opening of planting pits to be placed inside the target, following a uniform spacing. The new item is mainly aimed at the forestry market but can also be adapted to other types of crops, such as palm oil, coffee, banana and citrus.

"Despite the advances of the market in recent years, planting with excavators still has a failure rate of about 30%, impairing the productivity of the farms. HxGN AgrOn Planting Assistant was specially developed to change this scenario, helping the excavator operator to plant in the planned area", explains Ronaldo Soares, Forestry Manager at Hexagon's Agriculture division.

The new technology eliminates the manual step of marking the target positions for planting, allowing this to be done via planning software. In this way, nighttime planting is also possible with more security. Another differential is that the solution is ideal for operations on sloping terrain, using dual-drive antenna technology to ensure accuracy even in downhill/uphill areas.

"At the end of the process, the software generates maps and georeferenced data, which assists in the management of the quality of planting and the performance of the excavator operator," reinforces Ronaldo. It is possible to check information such as the region worked, the date and time of planting, the accuracy of the positioning of the seedling, the speed of the operation, reasons for stops and so on.

Intuitive and compatible with any machine on the market, HxGN AgrOn Planting Assistant can be integrated with other technological solutions to increase forest efficiency. One example is HxGN AgrOn Machine Monitoring, which manages information on the machines and fleets in the field, recording from second to second the position of the equipment and the activity being performed.

The software can also be connected to a command center structure that remotely and centrally manages all forest or agricultural production operations. The solution, HxGN AgrOn Control Room, identifies the tasks performed and transmits them from the equipment displays to the cloud through 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi or satellite communication channels. Thus, the centers receive data continuously and in real-time, being possible to compare the activities performed with the planning goals, track the working hours and view maps and reports. In addition to assisting in performance reviews, this solution allows notifications and alerts of irregularities, incidents or problems on machines to be issued in real time, ensuring a more agile intervention in these cases.

Hexagon is a global leader in sensor, software and autonomous solutions. We are putting data to work to boost efficiency, productivity, and quality across industrial, manufacturing, infrastructure, safety, and mobility applications. Our technologies are shaping urban and production ecosystems to become increasingly connected and autonomous — ensuring a scalable, sustainable future.

Hexagon’s Agriculture division develops and delivers information technology solutions that unleash the full potential of agricultural assets, driving big gains in efficiency, productivity and sustainability. Our solutions convert data into intelligent, actionable information that enables smart planning, efficient field execution, precise machine controls and automated workflows that optimise operations.

Our aim is to accelerate innovation within the agriculture sector with solutions that challenge the status quo — what is — and point our customers towards what should be, the digital transformation of agriculture.

Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 24,500 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 5.4bn EUR.