Rugged Tablets for RTK Auto-Steering: Farmtek Case Study
Farmtek RTK builds auto-steering and guidance systems for agricultural machinery. Its customers work fields where a pass that drifts by more than a few centimetres costs yield, fuel and operator hours, so moving from assisted steering to genuinely automated fieldwork depended on one component above all others: an in-cab terminal that could hold a centimetre-level RTK/GNSS fix, run Farmtek’s own application software, talk to the machine’s peripherals, and stay readable in direct sunlight.
Farmtek selected the TERVEX I22J, a 12.2-inch Windows rugged tablet, as the display and control unit for its automation platform.
Challenge: Labour Shortage and Naked-Eye Positioning Errors
Farming operations face a persistent labour shortage, and manual cultivation has a high error rate.
When guidance depends on the operator's eye and on markers in the field, the vehicle cannot be located precisely: passes overlap, strips are left unworked, and the deviation is only visible once the job is finished.
Farmtek's customers also wanted the guidance terminal to become the single interface for the whole job - positioning, machine status, route and task results - instead of a screen that only shows a heading.
The hardware has to survive open cabs, dust and glare, and it has to keep working when the operator is wearing gloves.
Solution: I22J Tablets With RTK/GNSS Centimetre-Level Guidance
The I22J works as the communication and control module of the system. It determines the vehicle position quickly and accurately and interacts with Farmtek's application software and with the machine's peripheral devices, so positioning and data capture happen in one place.
A navigation module (RTK/GNSS) holds the positioning error at centimetre level and keeps the vehicle travelling along the predetermined route, which is what makes repeatable passes possible.
During the job the driver can monitor the machine's working status and travel route information in real time on the I22J display, and can manually adjust the operation of the machine whenever conditions require it.
A 650-nit high-brightness screen with a high-quality optically laminated panel produces sharp contrast and keeps the interface readable even under direct sunlight - the condition that rules out most consumer tablets in a cab.
Results: Mechanised Ploughing, Sowing and Harvesting at Scale
Combined with the auto-drive system, work such as ploughing, harvesting, sowing and watering no longer depends on manual operation, and efficient mechanised work shortens the working window and accelerates the move to agricultural automation.
Because the vehicle follows the planned route with centimetre-level positioning error, results are repeatable from field to field and from operator to operator.
Task execution results, job quality, speed and other data can be reviewed and analysed in the background of the tablet terminal, giving the farm office a record of every pass instead of a verbal report.
