Nevonex by Bosch is joint partner solution for smart, digital agriculture

Modern IT solutions and the internet of things (loT) enable farmers to save time, increase yields, and reduce costs by automating and connecting machinery and workflows. However, in practice the potential of smart, digital agriculture is often not exploited because digital services are usually offered as standalone solutions that are often incompatible with each other.

Bosch developed Nevonex as an open, manufacturer-independent digital ecosystem for agriculture. Bosch developed it for farm applications and will operate the ecosystem.

The various suppliers of agricultural technology, resources, or services along the entire agricultural process chain can offer useful functions and tools for connecting and automating machinery and work processes via the infrastructure, said the company, and that farmers can select an individual package of digital services.

“With Nevonex we bring together important players in agriculture with their know-how, making the farmer’s day-today work easier and helping increase yields,” said Andrew Allen, responsible for Commercial Vehicles and Off-road, Robert Bosch.

Currently, there are 11 partners on board who will offer digital services, interfaces to their agricultural machinery, compatible sensors, Nevonex-enabled control units and installation services in the U.S. and Canada market.

These are: AGCO, Corteva, DKE data agrirouter, DHI, Inmarsat, Pessl Instruments, Rauch, Syngenta, Topcon, Xarvio and Yara.

“Participants in and users of the ecosystem can look forward to welcoming further well-known partners from the entire agricultural value-added chain in the coming months,” said Allen.

In the international market there are nine additional partners offering their solutions: Amazone, Duela, Geo-konzept, iXMAP, Lemken, MyEasyFarm, ISObus Experts, Rauch, and ZG Raiffeisen.

How it works

The core of Nevonex is the digital service. Any of the ecosystem partners can access its technical infrastructure and tools and develop a digital service, said the company. Once a Nevonex-enabled control unit has been installed, the features can run directly on the relevant ecosystem manufacturer’s agricultural machines. This is the starting point for the farmer or contractor.

The control unit can be retrofitted and registered by an authorized partner on existing agricultural machinery made by manufacturers in the ecosystem.

The Nevonex-enabled control unit is integrated into the electronic architecture, which facilitates active intervention in the machine functions and makes the automation of work processes and their documentation possible.

Access to data from existing or retrofitted compatible sensors on the agricultural machine leads to further potential for optimization, said Bosch. The live sensor data allows the system to take the current conditions in the field into account and for higher yields or reduced costs through the more precise distribution of, for example, seeds, fertilizers, and crop protection.

It is also possible to run several digital services on one machine simultaneously, said the company. Information is provided by terminal devices such as smartphones or tablets, based on the digital service. Thanks to the simple, direct implementation of the digital services on the machine and automatic data transfer, many of the operating steps, such as the use of flash drives, are no longer necessary. The digital services work online and offline in the field. When the system is used offline, data can be updated via Wi-Fi in the farmyard.

Safety standards take into account the fact that the farmer’s data is highly sensitive and protected from unauthorized access. At the same time, agricultural businesses can make their fleet equipment and vehicles “smart” and benefit from the smooth interaction between the connected devices.

“We designed Nevonex from the start as an open solution available to all manufacturers of agricultural machinery, sensors, and control units as well as to developers of digital services. As a result, users benefit from a growing variety of digital services and compatible devices along the entire value-added chain from tilling the land to sowing, fertilizing, crop protection, and harvesting. This gives our users the flexibility to choose between the individual offers, put together a tailor-made package and adapt it to their current requirements at any time,” said Allen.

An early adopter program is currently running for Nevonex with chosen partners. This will be significantly expanded in 2021, said the company, and will be freely accessible to farmers and contractors in selected regions in Europe, North and Latin America.

AGCO is a partner

One of those partners is AGCO, which supplies such farm equipment brands as Massey Ferguson and Fendt.

“We are pleased to innovate with Bosch as a continuation of our ongoing push to make data management easier for farmers, so they ultimately unlock more value for their operations,” said Seth Crawford, senior vice president and general manager, Precision Ag and Digital, AGCO.

AGCO said the collaboration adds to its commitment to help farmers optimize their farms through seamless technology integration and connectivity.

The company’s collaborations include a strategic partnership with Solinftec in 2019, the launch of the Agro Link task data platform in 2018, the data connection with Climate Corporation’s FieldView in 2017, and in 2016, founding the DKE-Data-Hub initiative together with nine industry partners. AGCO is also a founding member of the Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation, which now has more than 200 member companies.