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Sometimes the key to a project's successful completion is not in slugging it out in-house but in asking for help.

Jim Burton, president and chairman, AgRobotics LLC, Little Rock, AR, saw precision farming methods change agriculture in the 1990s, and he thought better soil sampling methods would enhance the process. Later that decade Burton was semi-retired from 35 years of farming and started working on what would become the AutoProbe. Burton built and tested two proof-of-concept prototypes, but he wanted to enlist a team of engineers to carry the concept to the production stage.

Like many of agriculture's significant advances in machinery design, the AutoProbe is the brain-child of a farmer who knew there had to be a better way. Talking to potential customers and media-types at this year's World Ag Expo, Tulare, CA, Burton admitted independent engineering firms can bring a wealth of experience to the table on the very first meeting. For the inventor or the established manufacturer, there's no delay between concept and completion due to the time required to find and train good help.

"I love creating and building, and have always been a hands-on sort of guy," says Burton. Impressed with Diedrichs & Associates Inc.'s portfolio of agricultural equipment, he called founder Bob Diedrichs. "From the first day, that firm brought hundreds of years worth of engineering experience to the project, aided by advanced modeling programs used by major equipment manufacturers."

Burton relocated to Iowa, where he had a desk at Diedrich's Cedar Falls office for more than a year. Burton's concept was brought to virtual life with Diedrich's 3D modeling software, then a prototype machine was built in Cedar Falls. Today the prototype continues its national tour while back in Cedar Falls the design is tweaked and more machines are produced.

A high-speed, on-the-go tool for precision soil sampling, the AutoProbe is designed to be an important step in precision agriculture. Users do not have to walk the field to gather soil samples; AutoProbe does it quickly and accurately.

In its current form, the AutoProbe is pulled by a light utility vehicle that is guided and steered with GPS. Soil samples are collected by the AutoProbe at a precise depth and exact intervals over a section of land. On a 2.5 acre grid and at 8 mph, 20 cores can be pulled to constitute a 1-lb. sample. Soil samples are bagged and tagged in the cab of the vehicle. AutoProbe allows for consistent, repeatable results over a variety of terrain and soil conditions.

People come to us for "problem solving," says Diedrichs. "We help them get the work done whether it's because they don't have the time, the technical expertise, or the resources to do it. We will improve an existing machine or look for ways to save production costs, and we can carry it all the way to the prototype stage."

Bob Diedrichs loves a good challenge, and since 1982 his firm has tackled plenty. Because his shop is located in the heart of corn and soybean country, you'd expect that his staff would see a fair share of farm equipment. While Diedrichs works with some of the most recognizable names in the farm machinery business, the strength such a design firm can bring to an OEM's engineering staff comes from the variety of projects it has completed.

For Diedrichs, the portfolio includes golf ball dispensers, industrial snow blowers and a machine that resembles a seed drill used for injecting liquid polymer into established turf (the polymer can retain up to 400 times its weight in water, acting like a reservoir in the soil). Diedrichs has also been hired to develop and produce production and test equipment.