With a total of 209 engineers from 62 companies and 77 ISOBUS devices to be tested against each other, the Fall Plugfest of the Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) reached new heights of participation. AEF Chairman Peter van der Vlugt comments, "The increase of about one third since the Spring Plugfest in the USA clearly shows how rapidly the acceptance of ISOBUS is growing throughout the world and underlines the significant role that AEF plays in Ag electronics."
The event attracted attendees from 11 countries and as far away as Australia. Their testing added up to almost 1,300 different ISOBUS terminal/implement combinations.
Plugfests take place every spring and fall, alternately in the USA and Europe. They provide the industry with the opportunity to test their own ISOBUS product developments in combination with those from other manufacturers using the test protocol defined in the standards. Real-time adjustments are often made by the Plugfest participants to ensure compatibility, while other situations require more work back at the company to complete the necessary changes.
The recent Fall Plugfest also marked the date from which the newly designed AEF ISOBUS Certified Label may be used to label products and be published in promotional material. The label states that the product is ISOBUS certified by an independent test laboratory using the new AEF ISOBUS Conformance Test Tool.
In conjunction with the AEF ISOBUS Database users will know exactly which functionalities are supported by a product or a combination e.g. tractor and implement.
The European AEF Plugfest was hosted by ISOBUS Test Center (ITC), one of the three test laboratories accredited by the foundation so far. The event took place at the Caprivi Campus, which is part of Osnabrück University, from September 10 to 13. The next AEF Plugfest is scheduled for May 2014 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE, USA.
