Russia Tests Autonomous Tractors in Regional Fields
A Russian agritech firm has built the country’s first fully autonomous mini-tractor, capable of plowing, seeding, and monitoring crops without a human driver. Field trials are now underway.
Cognitive Pilot, a joint venture between Sberbank and Cognitive Technologies, has launched tests of its AI-powered tractor in the Nizhny Novgorod region in collaboration with the local Ministry of Agriculture.
The robot can work around the clock—plowing, seeding, cultivating, and analyzing the condition of plants and soil. The machine was fully designed and built at a factory in Tomsk.
According to managing partner Anton Yemelyanov, the quality of the mini-tractor’s work is monitored by sensors installed on plows, harrows, and other equipment. The system can transmit information to owners about equipment status and task progress.
In 2024, Market Research Intellect, one of the world’s leading market analytics agencies, ranked Cognitive Pilot among the global top five developers of autonomous tractor piloting systems.
The project is part of a broader trend in Russia’s automation push: driverless trains are already running on railways, unmanned boats are searching for underwater waste, and self-driving dump trucks are operating in the mining sector.
