A leading group of equipment manufacturers will soon release products to manage data across different precision agriculture systems – regardless of the system manufacturer, thanks to AgGateway’s ADAPT conversion toolkit.
“The ADAPT framework removes the complexity of managing multiple data formats for farm management systems, helping software developers instead to focus on delivering value-added features for their agricultural customers,” said Tarak Reddy, chair of AgGateway‘s ADAPT Technical Committee and delivery architect of John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group. “The framework maps multiple data formats into a common agriculture model created by experts from a broad range of companies and organizations within the agriculture industry. ADAPT and the accompanying data format enables the interoperability between software systems, service providers and advisors that farmers need to perform their routine operations more efficiently and seamlessly.”
Companies that have committed to using ADAPT and releasing plug-ins for many of their proprietary data formats currently include AGCO Corporation, Ag Leader Technology, CLAAS, CNH Industrial, Deere & Company, Praxidyn, Raven Industries, Topcon Precision Agriculture, and Trimble Navigation. The “plug-in” technology allows the ADAPT platform to work with individual, proprietary products. This commitment by major precision ag equipment manufacturers will help drive the broad adoption of AgGateway’s ADAPT, notes Mark Stelford, chairman of AgGateway’s ADAPT Oversight Committee and GM of Premier Crop Systems.
The AgGateway team publicly released the open-source ADAPT – which stands for Agricultural Data Application Programming Toolkit – in February. The timeline for plug-in development will vary by manufacturer this fall and into 2017; some plug-ins are immediately available to FMIS companies, who can check with the manufacturer for availability and licensing details. The ADAPT committee is coordinating with additional equipment and software companies on plug-ins for their company’s proprietary formats.
At the same time, AgGateway members have developed an ISO plug-in to support a broad range of ISO-compatible systems under an open source license; The ISO plug-in performed well at a PlugFest event in Italy last week, Stelford said.
ADAPT is an open source project, allowing precision ag software providers globally to use the software and to contribute to its continued development. The ADAPT framework is comprised of an Agricultural Application Data Model, a common API (Application Programming Interface), and a combination of open source and proprietary data conversion plug-ins. The ADAPT SDK uses the Eclipse Public License 1.0 which allows software developers to include the ADAPT framework in their software and modify it, if needed. Developers can access additional information about the ADAPT SDK, licensing, as well as access the model, by going to www.ADAPTframework.org.
Companies currently participating in AgGateway’s ADAPT Oversight Committee are: Ag Connections, Ag Leader, AGCO, Agrian, CNH Industrial, Central Valley Ag Coop, CLAAS, Conservis, Independent Data Management, John Deere, Land O’ Lakes, Monsanto, Premier Crop Systems, ProAg, Raven Industries, Software Solutions Integrated, SST Software, Syngenta, Topcon Precision Agriculture, Trimble, Uptake and ZedX. For more information and to join the work of the committee, contact the committee at Adapt.Feedback@AgGateway.org.