B&R unveils ‘high-end’ computer for autonomous agricultural and construction vehicles

Industrial automation company B&R, a subsidiary of ABB, is adding a new high-end computer to its mobile automation portfolio.

The company says the new computer offers significantly more processing power and memory, giving it plenty of resources to implement autonomous functions for agricultural and construction vehicles or self-driving transport systems.

The computer is specially designed to perform in harsh environments. The housing temperature can be between -40°C and +85°C. The computer is also highly resistant to shock and vibration.

Inside the mobile computer’s IP69K housing is a powerful Intel Core i7 processor. It also has 16 GB RAM and 480 GB flash memory, making it ideal for applications that are computationally intensive or involve larger volumes of data.

The increased computing power is needed for tasks such as accurate path planning in autonomous agricultural vehicles. More efficient, more precise vehicles deliver increased yield.

The PC’s high performance makes it optimally suited for smart machines that communicate with each other, process data and send it to the cloud.

Tractors and implements can optimize harvesting efficiency, for example, by exchanging information such as speed and load capacity.

B&R supports well-established communication protocols like OPC UA and MQTT.