TopFarmRobots · Farm robots, weekly · Week of October 5, 2026
Hi there,
Welcome to issue two, and to the roughly 50 people who joined since the first one. Quick intro if you're new: I'm Carl Lippert, a farm owner and technologist. Keeping up with farm robots is my side project, and this newsletter and topfarmrobots.com are where I share what I find.
Most of this week is about robots that spray less, or don't spray at all. One weeding robot counts every drop it uses, another pulls weeds the way a person would, and a third uses light instead of fungicide.
If you replied to the first issue, it may not have reached me, so please try again.
One quick question. Hit reply with just a number:
1 – I farm or manage a farm
2 – I build or sell farm robots
3 – I invest in or advise ag companies
4 – something else (tell me what)
Bonus points: name the farm robot you're watching. I read every reply.
New on TopFarmRobots
AgriPass RHIC
A mechanical weeder from AgriPass that works plant by plant with independent, "human-inspired" tools instead of herbicide. The company lists a 95% weed identification rate, 85% weed removal, and 2–3 acres an hour; it runs on a diesel engine with a generator.
XAG RM80
An all-electric mowing robot from China's XAG for orchard rows, land clearing, and crop stubble. Future Farming lists 143 kg unladen, up to 40 minutes per charge on two batteries, and slopes up to 30%. It reported in July that XAG had not published retail pricing.
MS Smart Cleaning Robot
A barn-washing robot from MS Schippers, a family company in Hapert, Netherlands. It foams, pressure-washes, and disinfects pens in one pass, finds its way with 3D LiDAR, and won a Silver Innovation Award at EuroTier. Farms.com reported on Oct 2 that it will be sold in Canada.
Company spotlight: Kilter
Kilter is a Norwegian company in Langhus, founded in 2010, with 65 employees, according to Future Farming. Its AX-1 drives vegetable rows, photographs the crop, and puts a single tiny drop of herbicide (1 microlitre, the company says) on each weed, at 6 × 6 mm resolution.
The company says AX-1 helped growers avoid spraying more than 1 million litres of herbicide mix in under eight months across five countries. It counts the drops each robot logs and compares that with broadcast spraying at 250 litres per hectare. The fleet: 54 robots treating 4,265 hectares in Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia between Jan 1 and Aug 16.
My quick check: 4,265 hectares at 250 litres is about 1.07 million litres, so the claim means the robots used only a small slice of what a boom sprayer would have. What stuck with me is managing director Anders Brevik's answer on the biggest misconception: that the robot makes the decisions. "The agronomic judgement stays with the grower." Kubota distributes AX-1 in Europe, and Croplands in Australia.
In the news
Greenfield Robotics opens a public share offering (Sep 29). The Kansas company, started by third-generation farmer Clint Brauer, is raising up to $18.6 million from the public on StartEngine. Future Farming reports 82 BOTONY weeding robots in paying customers' fields across 16 states, a sold-out 2026 season, and $36,500 per robot (quoted by Greenfield's Nathan Dyrud in US media). It has also dropped pay-per-use for outright sales.
Why it matters: Fleet counts and prices like these are rarely public for farm robots. This is just news, we were not paid to share this. Future Farming · On TopFarmRobots
Antobot targets 300 strawberry robots in 2027 (Oct 1). The UK startup's robots shine UV-C light on plants to fight powdery mildew and other fungi instead of spraying fungicide. VP commercial Marc Jones told AgFunderNews most customers will move from renting robots as a service to buying and running them next year, and that the company is now looking for growth capital.
Why it matters: That's two robot makers in one week (with Greenfield) moving growers from renting to owning. AgFunderNews · On TopFarmRobots
Bonsai Robotics launches Bonsai World (Oct 2). The San Jose company, whose autonomy software runs its Amiga platform and retrofitted equipment, turns satellite images of a farm into a 3D simulation so it can train a machine before it arrives. The company says its models learn from more than 50 million real-world samples gathered across over a million acres.
Why it matters: Bonsai says it cuts the field tuning and test runs a machine needs before it works on a new farm. Bonsai Robotics · On TopFarmRobots
Coming up
RoboBusiness 2026 · Oct 20–21
A general robotics conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California, with a Field Robotics track on designing and deploying robots outdoors. Same week as FIRA USA (Oct 20–22 in Yakima, Washington), which we covered last week.
Conference tracks · All upcoming events
Don't forget: hit reply with 1, 2, 3, or 4 (and the robot you're watching). It takes five seconds and tells me what to cover. — Carl
Building a farm robot? Submit it to the catalog with the "Submit a robot" button at topfarmrobots.com.