Standards Development

Scope

This document specifies the safety requirements and the means of verification for the design and construction of agricultural machinery and tractors and their use with the intended implements, interchangeable equipment and tools that operate autonomously (autonomous machinery (see 3.1) / autonomous operation (see 3.2)) in agricultural soil-working applications (soil-working machinery). Additionally, it provides guidance on the type of information to be provided by the manufacturer on safe working practices (including information about residual risks).

Soil-working applications include (but not limited to):

tilling (e.g. plowing, soil conditioning);

mechanical weeding;

land levelling;

Etc.

Agriculture includes (but not limited to):

row crop fields;

orchards;

vineyards;

greenhouses;

Etc.

This document deals with significant hazards, hazardous situations and events, as listed in AnnexC, relevant to this autonomous machinery when used as intended and under the conditions of misuse reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer during normal operation and service.

NOTE 1 Safety requirements for specific non-automated and partially automated functions of agricultural machinery and tractors, as well as machine-specific components (e.g. working tools), can be available in machine-specific type-C standards.

This document is not applicable to:

forestry applications;

operations on public roads including relevant requirements for braking and steering systems;

environmental hazards;

pedestrian controlled2 machinery;

machinery requiring or allowing the option for a local operator in a local operator station to provide manual non-automated or partially automated functions or operations to complete a soil-working cycle of work in autonomous operation;

application of crop or soil products;

application of crop or soil products in combination with soil-working.

The use of partially or fully self-evolving behavior or logic with varying levels of autonomy in the design and construction of agricultural machinery and tractors and their use with the intended implements, interchangeable equipment and tools that operate autonomously (autonomous machinery (see 3.1) / autonomous operation (see 3.2)) in agricultural soil-working applications (soil-working machinery) is not in scope of this document.

NOTE 2 Pedestrian controlled machinery is machinery with power travel movements controlled by a driver accompanying the machinery on foot (driver does not ride on the machine) and operates the control devices and steering by hand. If this type of machinery is converted to work in an autonomous mode where the driver is no longer needed to accompany on foot, the machinery is no longer pedestrian controlled machinery.

This document is not applicable to hazards related to service, machine conversion and repairs intended to be carried out by professional service personnel.

This document is not applicable to agricultural machinery and tractors which are manufactured before the date of its publication, or to systems applied to agricultural machinery and tractors put into use before the date of its publication.

Purpose

This document is of relevance, in particular, for the following stakeholder groups representing the market players with regard to machinery safety:

— machine manufacturers (small, medium and large enterprises);

— health and safety bodies (regulators, accident prevention organisations, market surveillance, etc.). Others can be affected by the level of machinery safety achieved with the means of the document by the above-mentioned stakeholder groups:

— machine users/employers (small, medium and large enterprises);

— machine users/employees (e.g. trade unions, organizations for people with special needs);

— service providers, e.g. for maintenance (small, medium and large enterprises);

— consumers (in case of machinery intended for use by consumers).

The above-mentioned stakeholder groups have been given the possibility to participate at the drafting process of this document.

In addition, this document is intended for standardization bodies elaborating type-C standards.