Owners
Bear Flag Robotics, based in the East Bay of San Francisco, was founded by Aubrey Donnellan and Igino Cafiero in 2017. It creates autonomous technologies for agricultural tractors - hardware, sensors, actuators and software that are installed on top of the hardware to ensure uninterrupted operation in various situations. This technology not only gives the tractor the ability to move in constantly changing conditions, but also allows the machine to effectively do its job without giving in to a person.
History
2021: John Deere bought Bear Flag Robotics for $250m
In early August 2021, John Deere bought the developer of unmanned tractors Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million to solve the problem of labor shortages in agriculture. Bear Flag Robotics tractors are heavily used on California farms that buy or rent robotics.
The main goal of the company is to increase global food production and reduce the cost of growing through automation.
According to Bear Flag Robotics co-founder and COO Aubrey Donnellan, the task of automation in agriculture is enormous:
We need to identify and fix all failures that can occur in these environments to ultimately give the manufacturer strategically beneficial ways to deploy resources and increase hours. |
Bear Flag's products focus on autonomous tillage, but over time, the creators plan to expand production and cover other tasks. The company works with both small and large farms in California, and the John Deere deal is supposed to put a broader dealer network at their disposal.[1]