Development and application of an agricultural BUS for data transfer

Sound and sustainable agriculture without electronics is inconceivable today, as electronic systems are used to reduce farm inputs, protect the environment, secure farm income and produce high quality products. This paper explains the needs and the gears of a standardized agricultural binary unit system (BUS). Such a BUS is mandatory for efficient use of electronics in agriculture to guarantee unimpeded data and information transfer between agricultural systems from different manufacturers such as tractors, implements and farm computers. The development and its application resulting in a standard are presented, as well as first practical experiences. Products which follow this standard are highly sophisticated hardware and software systems. To assure the farmer that the system he buys meets the standard and to help the industry to develop such systems a test system has been developed. The practical effectiveness of this system has already been proved. The international standard ISO 11783, currently in preparation, has the goal of establishing such an agricultural BUS. The experience and results gained through the established German standard DIN 9684 could assist in the quickest possible realization of the ISO goals. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.