EMILI is using Verge Ag’s Launch Pad software to automate route planning on Innovation Farms powered by AgExpert during the 2026 season.
In May 2026, Innovation Farms Associate Sarah Wilcott worked with Verge Ag to generate tillage plans specific to the farm’s field boundaries, elevation, and equipment. The plan was then synced to a John Deere 590 tractor before tilling began.
Verge Ag’s Launch Pad is a web-based precision agriculture platform that aims to unlock autonomy on a farmer’s existing equipment.
“The current version uses smart heuristics to estimate how ‘costly’ any maneuver in the field is, along with various meta-heuristic algorithms to optimize the route ordering,” said Verge Ag Product Manager AJ Nolin.
Its core feature is Path Planner, which helps farmers plan out the most efficient route before any equipment enters a field.
“There’s a lot going on in the cab, ” Nolin said. “Using Path Planner means farmers don’t need to worry about what direction to go, or when to turn. If we can take that away, they can concentrate on more valuable issues, like putting the right product down at the right time.”
The made in Canada technology is designed to be accessible and cost effective. It uses standard GIS shapefiles, costs only $5 to plan seeding for one field, works with all major equipment brands, and requires no installation.
While the technology could one day power fully-autonomous farm equipment, and even robots, Nolin says the market isn’t ready for that. In the meantime, supervised autonomy allows farmers to unlock tools they already have, such as GPS and auto-steer, to standardize routes and increase efficiency in the field.
“Full autonomy is a journey and it’s probably not coming anytime soon,” he said. “But there are things you can do now that will improve your efficiency, minimize overlap, and save you money.”
Verge Ag Launch Pad allows farmers to plan routes with fewer passes, based on specific field conditions such as identifying optimal refill spots for seed and product, so machines travel the shortest practical distance between work areas and refill locations.
Before tilling, the Innovation Farms team used Verge Ag’s Launch Pad for route planning (Photo credit: EMILI)
On Innovation Farms, the 2026 tillage plan took into account the number of headland passes, whether tilling would start at the beginning or end of the field, the shape of turns, and the direction of tillage, in this case three degrees of the seeding direction.
“We can program the lines to be what you want,” said Nolin. “We take your past data, what you’ve done in the field, any applied data, and we give you a new pathline.”
Nolin says the chance to test and validate with EMILI on Innovation Farms is an important step in scaling the technology on more farms across Canada.
The company has seen success since launching in 2019, including being recognized by SVG Ventures THRIVE in a 2024 pitch competition, and is continuing to look for ways to improve its technology and increase adoption.
“One of our biggest hurdles is that we need validation on-farm so it’s extremely valuable to get feedback from EMILI on what works well and what needs improvement,” said Nolin. “Testing on Innovation Farms allows us to showcase how it works on a Canadian farm, in Canadian conditions, in the Manitoba prairies.”
As an industry-led non-profit, EMILI is in a unique position to provide agtech innovators like Verge Ag with access to leading-edge equipment, technology, and production practices along with unbiased feedback on how their innovation works on a full-scale farm.
“There’s not a lot of farms like EMILI’s Innovation Farms in Canada, where it is part of the value proposition to provide helpful data, to let us know If our technology works, and if it doesn’t work, to give us feedback on why it didn’t work,” said Nolin.
Verge Ag’s Path Planner can be used across standard farm equipment and robotics.
“So when a farmer does want to make that jump to buying a robot for their farm, they will already be familiar with the technology,” said Nolin. “Verge Ag is bridging the gap to autonomy. That means bringing autonomy closer to everyday equipment, but it’s also educating the grower, and saying, be prepared for where technology can take you.”
Visit EMILI’s Innovation Farms to learn more about this project and other activities. EMILI hosts field tours and demonstrations on Innovation Farms throughout the season to showcase new agricultural technology, expand innovation opportunities, and increase understanding and adoption of digital tools.