These are the most expensive ag robots you can buy today

In November 2023, the fourth edition of the most comprehensive overview of field and harvest robots was completed. Future Farming magazine featured 60 commercially available field and harvest robots for outdoor crop production. Field robots ranging from autonomous tool carriers, weeding and spraying platforms, and autonomous transporters/farmhands to tractor replacing/equivalent power houses. And harvest robots for robotic harvesting of asparagus, sweet potatoes, radishes, strawberries and table grapes.

All entries include pricing details

To help farmers choose, three different categories are being distinguished: multipurpose robots, specialised robots and harvest robots for outdoor crops.

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These are the most expensive multipurpose robots

Multipurpose field robots are robots that can perform multiple tasks and jobs such as carrying different implements. A total of 37 of the 60 robots in the recent catalogue can be characterised as multipurpose and are thus capable of performing more than a single task or operation. Gross retail prices roughly vary between €14,235 ($15,000) and €320,000 ($337,184). The three most expensive multipurpose field robots in the 2023/2024 catalogue are:

1. AgXeed Agbot 5.115T2: €320,000 ($337,184)
2. Sitia Trektor Maxi: €251,485 ($265,000)
3. Pixelfarming Robotics Robot One: €249,000 ($262,371)

If we were to include the multipurpose robots listed in the category ‘robots without pricing or not available anymore’, then the Raven DOT, later rebranded to Raven OMNiPOWER 3200, would top the chart. The last revealed retail price amounted to $700,000 (€661,321) with application equipment and $375,000 (€354,279) for the vehicle itself.

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The three most expensive specialised robots

Specialised field robots are robots intended to perform a single task/job such as crop or field scouting, weed removal or spraying. 19 from the 60 listed robots can be classified as specialised field robots. Their retail prices vary between €12,540 ($13,150) for literally the smallest autonomous vehicle and €800,000 ($842,960) for not only the most expensive entry, but possibly also the largest one. The three most expensive specialised field robots in the 2023/2024 catalogue are:

1. Andela Robot Weeder ARW-912: €800,000 ($842,960)
2. Nexus Robotics La Chèvre: €472,372 ($500,000)
3. GUSS’s spraying robots: €291,818 ($307,500) for each of their three models

The category ‘robots without pricing or not available anymore’ doesn’t contain any more dearer models.

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Dutch robotic harvesters top pricing chart

Commercially available harvest robots for outdoor grown crops with disclosed pricing details are still rare across the world. The current catalogue contains four different models while just two have a recent purchasing price listed. The last Schmiede.one Harvey.one was last labelled with a price tag of €95,000 ($100,556). And newcomer Tortuga AgTech charges a price between €0.56 and €0.80 ($0.60 to $0.85) per kilo strawberries or table grapes picked. That leaves the AVL Motion Compact S9000 as the most expensive robotic harvester: €400,000 ($421,480). Fellow Dutch manufacturer Koppert Machines follows with €250,000 ($263,425) for its automatic harvesting and radish bunching machine.

When taking a look in the category ‘robots without pricing or not available anymore’, we find the Lapalme Agtech SAMI 4.0 that costed €2,36 million ($2.5 million) and that easily is the most expensive robot ever listed in Future Farming’s catalogues.

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Prices to be put into perspective

Purchase and retail prices should however be considered in respect to the vehicle, implement and job or service they aim to replace. Weeding expenses on organic farms for instance can rise shy high because of human labour costs. Let alone the availability of labour.

A similar reasoning is in place for robotic fruit pickers. If personnel isn’t available and/or very expensive, fruits can remain unpicked causing high losses for farmers. The expenses of buying or renting a fruit picking robot then might pay off quicker than expected. Especially if prices per kilo picked are comparable to human picking and success rates are equal or similar.