The John Deere plant in Mannheim is bustling with activity. Tractors roll along a conveyor belt which winds its way through the entire production hall, from one assembly station to the next. With each step, they progress from a frame to a complete tractor with a cab, bonnet, tyres and lights. The conveyor belt now takes the tractors through a large archway halfway through their journey. Blue lights on the floor mark the start of the working area of one of the latest achievements in quality assurance – the SkyHawk.
The heroic name is given to a high-tech camera system mounted on a six-axis robot. It thoroughly checks the tractors before they are fitted with cabs, bonnets and other components at the next stations.
A keen eye
The SkyHawk camera scans 50 inspection points within three minutes and compares the condition of the tractor against stored images of the target construction.
Pursuit of perfection
The highest possible tractor quality is one of the most important goals for all employees at the Mannheim plant. Linus Baumhauer, plant manager at Mannheim, explains: “With the SkyHawk project, we are bringing the basic idea of the See-and-Spray technology developed for our customers into our own production. While farmers are concerned with the sustainable and targeted application of crop protection chemicals in the field, SkyHawk helps us detect and avoid deviations in production at an early stage.
SkyHawk helps us detect and avoid deviations in production at an early stage.
Linus Baumhauer
The aim of the project is to use a robot to reproduce human movement sequences and to recognise and interpret assembly results using industrial image processing. This enables us to reduce our employees’ workload while automatically monitoring the quality of our products.”

Tobias Trunk, factory automation lead at Mannheim, is responsible for the concept and design of the SkyHawk system. Together with his team, he first had to find a solution for seamlessly integrating the inspection system into the factory structure in Mannheim, which had grown over the years. “There are only a few comparable systems in the world,” he says. “And they are all set up parallel to the assembly line – this reduces complexity because the robot can then move the camera more easily to all parts of the vehicle. However, this type of assembly was not possible for us because the space only allows for a gate system which works across the manufacturing line above the tractors.”
So the camera can inspect every corner of the tractor, it is mounted on a six-axis robot which moves back and forth on a linear rail above the tractor.
To find out how this system could work, Tobias and his team first built a fully digital prototype of it, which they used to thoroughly test the concept. The second step was to set up the system in an empty hall on the Mannheim factory premises. “We had to overcome a few hurdles, especially before the hardware and software could really work together. After all, we have to be able to map and test a wide range of parameters,” says Tobias.
Construction with a deadline
The route that the camera takes around each tractor model is precisely programmed by the experts, as are the inspection points at which the camera has to stop briefly. The foundation for this is digital models of the tractors: In live operation, the camera does not fly in front and over the physical tractor, but over a digital “coat” which covers the machine. SkyHawk receives information about which model is to be tested and in which configuration via a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip in the tractor’s fuel cap, which carries this information.
After the team had put in many hours of testing and programmed many lines of code, SkyHawk was ready for use in live production. A fixed time window of 14 days during the company holiday at the Mannheim plant was available for its installation. During this time, the team dismantled the SkyHawk system in the test hall and set it up in the tractor production facility. “It was a very intense time for all of us,” recalls Tobias. “But because we all worked together as a team really well, the system was up and running before production started again after the shutdown.”
SkyHawk has landed
The SkyHawk system was installed and put into operation during the 14-day company holiday at the Mannheim plant.
Teamwork between humans and machines
In the first few hours and days of SkyHawk’s deployment, Tobias and his team were constantly on hand to quickly remedy any start-up difficulties and eliminate any bugs. The system has now been in use for several months. It has proven itself, and interaction with human colleagues has also become established. In each production area, there is now a permanent “stand-in” who wears a smartwatch on their wrist. As soon as SkyHawk detects an irregularity, the system analyses in real time which production area can correct the problem. The person in the field then receives an alert on their smartwatch, which indicates the noted irregularity. This allows them to go directly to the SkyHawk station and fix the problem before it causes further issues.

Tobias is satisfied: “The SkyHawk project shows how we can use and integrate technical systems into our production which further improve the quality of our tractors while supporting workers’ tasks here at the plant. This is how useful automation works.”