Grainswest - Tech 2022

Tech 2022 grainswest.com 15 BY ELLEN COTTEE • ILLUSTRATION BY CHELSEA BOOS On-farm inventor markets innovative tech device Remote possibilities R aised on a farm in Peace Country, Vincent Pawluski has always loved to tinker. As a kid, he hot-rodded a Fischer Price boat with a small motor and propellor. Later, as part of an elementary school science fair project, he and his friends created a remote-controlled drill stem like those used in the oil and gas industry. He continued to invent remote control devices as an adult, but never dreamed one of them might become a hit with fellow farmers. Created as a spare time project, Pawluski’s RcFarmArm won a Canada’s Farm Show award and Agri-Trade’s Ag Innovation Award in 2021, as well as the Manitoba Ag Days In- novation Showcase award in the Farm Built Solution category in 2022. He has now launched an on-farm business to produce the patent-pending wireless trac- tor power-takeoff (PTO) control system. The RcFarmArm can be installed over a tractor’s arm rest and ignition key. With no hard-wiring re- quired, it works like a driver’s arm and hand to turn the ignition key, control the PTO and operate hydrau- lics. It can start, stop and control the engine as well as augers, baggers and other stationary equipment. GrainsWest: You grew up on a farm, but you left for a time. What brought you back? Vincent Pawluski: I had a large farm that was just too much for my father and I, so I decided to do something else. We sold the farm and I took a sabbatical. My kids, my wife and I travelled the United States in a motorhome. Then we moved to Okotoks where I ended up working in construction before getting an ag job with Seed Hawk. That pointed me back towards farming. We moved back up to Peace Country to start farming again. Farming is like a disease in the sense that there’s truly no cure for it. Even when we were travelling, we always felt most com- fortable near some type of ag activity. I needed that in my life to give me balance and purpose. GW: What drives you to tinker and invent? VP: It’s the challenge of controlling pieces of equipment. Remote control vehicles were always a big thing for me, and that’s where it stems from. If you can make that little car move like that, may- be you can make it do something else. GW: What is unique about the RcFarmArm? VP: It’s made to sit on top of the armrest and ignition. there’s no wiring, and there’s no alteration of the tractor at all. You put it on with two screws, that’s it. When you take it off, you don’t know it was ever on there. Usually, autonomous tech requires cutting wires or drilling holes to make it work. GW: At its base, the RcFarmArm is a set of mechanical “fingers” that push, pull and turn various controls from outside the tractor cab. How does a simple remote run all of that? VP: Using the remote, you press the “on” button to put the tractor key into position and then use a combination of buttons to turn the key—two buttons at once, as a control. There are lights for each function: PTO, RPM and two hydraulic controls, plus four other buttons on every model for a user to control other equipment. You can then hit stop on the remote and it brings everything back to its home position—the off position. It’s best used for stationary work, like dealing with grain bags and extractors, although the tractor is still drivable with the RcFarmArm on it. GW: How has the design of the RcFarmArm evolved from your first prototype? VP: We’ve had a lot of growth and change to our product as