Raven Industries acquires DOT and Smart Ag

The acquisitions are part of Raven’s strategy to deliver autonomous solutions for agriculture.

DOT is the designer and manufacturer of a U-shaped diesel-powered platform designed to autonomously handle a large variety of agriculture implements. Through its accurate path planning technology, the platform is able to complete tasks autonomously.

The 2 companies began working together in May 2018, when Raven announced the Dot Platform would be outfitted with Raven technology, including steering, guidance and propulsion.

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DOT is the designer and manufacturer of a U-shaped diesel-powered platform designed to autonomously handle a large variety of agriculture implements. – Photo: DOT

“Over the last year and a half of collaborating with DOT, Raven has come to understand the value and uniqueness of the DOT Platform,” said Dan Rykhus, President and Chief Executive Officer of Raven Industries. “By investing in DOT’s growth, we believe we have the ability to lead in the next revolution of production agriculture.”

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@NorbertBeaujot Founder of Dot and Dan Rykhus, CEO of @RavenIndustries celebrate the majority investment by Raven @SeeDotRun pic.twitter.com/OIKpXtLSLX

— Robert Saik, PAg,CAC, AGvocate (@RSaik) October 31, 2019

From semi-autonomous to fully-autonomous solutions

Raven brings steering, guidance and machine control technology, while DOT brings field path planning, user control experience, machine safety and remote communication software to the relationship. Together, the companies aim to accelerate the development of precision agriculture technology from semi-autonomous to fully-autonomous solutions.

Acquisition of Smart Ag

The acquisition of Smart Ag will be integrated into Raven’s Applied Technology division with the intent to create autonomous solutions for the precision ag market.

Smart Ag offers aftermarket retrofit kits to automate farm equipment as well as a platform to connect, manage and safely operate autonomous agricultural machinery.

“Raven’s experience in machine and application control is a perfect complement to the autonomous machine control developed by Smart Ag,” said Brian Meyer, Division Vice President of Raven Applied Technology.

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Smart Ag offers aftermarket retrofit kits to automate farm equipment as well as a platform to connect, manage and safely operate autonomous agricultural machinery. – Photo: Smart Ag

More operations to be performed in-field

“Together, the expertise of both companies will allow for more operations to be performed in-field – with a significant increase in both performance and outputs. By automating existing machine platforms and implements, driverless machines have great potential to complement the work of manned machine operations in the field.”