Want to see the John Deere Tango Robotic Mower?

"MOLINE, Illinois (January 16, 2014) The John Deere Pavilion, Deere & Company's visitor center in downtown Moline, Ill., today unveiled a new exhibit showcasing the company's innovation in lawn care equipment. The new Tango E5 autonomous mower exhibit treats Pavilion visitors to a real-time demonstration of this hands-free machine and its mowing abilities on a residential lawn setting. The Tango E5 mower is only available in select European countries, so the Pavilion is likely the only place many will see this innovation at work....."

(John Deere Pavilion Unveils New Exhibit with Tango E5 Demonstration - Rural Lifestyle Dealer)

Time-lapse here: John Deere Media Player

I might have to stop in and take a look at that. I drive past the John Deere Pavilion every day I go downtown Moline to meet the wife for lunch.

bwdbrn1 said:

I might have to stop in and take a look at that. I drive past the John Deere Pavilion every day I go downtown Moline to meet the wife for lunch.

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Ya that would be neat! It looks like an interesting place.

I gotta' say, I take the place for granted. Never have gotten used to the idea that people come from all over the place to see it. Hits home every time I see a tour bus or somebody posing for photos our front. Same with their international headquarters and their plants in the area. I took a tour of their harvester works last year and was fascinated by what I saw. It's absolutely amazing to see the transformation of raw materials at one end of the line into the completed machine at the other. I especially liked their "Gold Key" area at the end of the assembly line, a carpeted ramp to the cab, where the person buying the new combine may be the first to start it when it's done.

bwdbrn1 said:

I gotta' say, I take the place for granted. Never have gotten used to the idea that people come from all over the place to see it. Hits home every time I see a tour bus or somebody posing for photos our front. Same with their international headquarters and their plants in the area. I took a tour of their harvester works last year and was fascinated by what I saw. It's absolutely amazing to see the transformation of raw materials at one end of the line into the completed machine at the other. I especially liked their "Gold Key" area at the end of the assembly line, a carpeted ramp to the cab, where the person buying the new combine may be the first to start it when it's done.

Click to expand...

It seems like a cool place!

I was downtown Moline with some free time this morning, so I strolled over to the John Deere Pavilion to have a look at the Tango mower. The Deere Pavilion is an interesting place to visit and they have displays of quite a number of pieces of the equipment that carry the John Deere name from the little robotic mower at one corner, to huge agricultural, construction and logging equipment and several pieces of historical significance to the company's growth.

Here's the outside of the building, which was fashioned to look like one of Deere's original factories that would have been just down the street from where the Pavilion is now, and the Tango mower in it's display.



This is a short movie I took of it for you viewing pleasure as it "mows" it's astro turf display.

http://youtu.be/55mqyLOWYdk


One of the hosts at the Pavilion told me that after they had the display set up they had to call in the engineers because it didn't seem to be working as it should. After some head scratching they determined that the plastic in it's wheels traveling over the astro turf was causing it to gather static electricity, and when it went back to it's charging station is sort of zapped itself silly and didn't know what to do. A spritz of fabric softener on the astro turf took care of the problem.

Thanks for the info and pictures! It seems like it would hit less obstacles in a larger yard compared to that display! The static electricity story is pretty funny! :laughing:

Even the John Deere host kind of chuckled a bit about it.

Here's some more pictures I took of just a few of the things on display there that you might like to see.

The 110 garden tractor introduced in 1961.



And their millionth garden tractor, a 318, built in 1984.




Some of the tractors from their history, the Model A, the Waterloo Boy and a 4010.



One of their massive combines was displayed next to the Robotic mower.



And an autonomous tractor on the other side of the combine.



And on the other side of the building was this giant 6 legged lumbering machine that was very impressive to see.



Right now there is a farm tractor and a couple of construction machines sitting out front of the building. I know they switch out what they display outside fairly often, but I'll have to go back again another day soon to see what's different on the inside.

Those are some really neat things! Thanks for the pictures! That autonomous tractor looks really cool. :thumbsup: