Study of the economic viability of automating agricultural machinery for an autonomous pilot system in the province of Quebec, Canada

The main costs that affect the economic viability of automation projects in conventional tractors are component costs and engineering development costs that increase the implementation cost.This work studied the economic viability of automating conventional tractors, being defined in two scenarios: without automation and with automation.For the study, a utility tractor used on small agricultural properties in the Canadian province of Quebec was used as a basis.Thus, a feasibility analysis of automating conventional tractors was carried out using economic indicators with the results obtained after determining revenues in both scenarios with corn production.The indicators in the scenario without automation proved to be a viable project with an interesting internal rate of return at 67.82% and payback close to 2 and a half years after the investment and NPV of CAD 72,543.69,and it was observed that when using tractors with automation pointed out as a viable project, due to the evaluation the internal rate of return at 82.88%, well above the MARR at 19.97%, payback just over 2 years and NPV of CAD 204,532.58 in the region analyzed, showing an efficiency of 182 % above the conventional tractor in the period.A sensitivity analysis was also carried out, in which the behavior of the net present value was validated depending on the variation in the efficiency scenario of both tractors, thus also altering the minimum attractiveness rates with the quantity of bags produced and evaluating the costs are reduced over time.The project demonstrated a need to add value to the price of the final product so that the investment is recovered in less time.