CLAWS (Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding and Scouting) from Earth Rover Ltd in Edgmond, Shropshire. Battery-and-solar robot with eight cameras. Identifies plants, zaps weed meristems with a concentrated pulse of light, and scouts crop health. First 10 machines sold and 15 more under construction. Purchase price approximately £150,000 (€170,000 / US$195,000 indicative). Up to 16 hours without a battery swap.
Agricultural robotics from Earth Rover.
Model specifications and operating notes.
No published mass or ha/day.
Specifications describe this model and its listed configuration. Read operating notes for limits and qualifications. Listed figures are manufacturer or press claims, not independent verification of current availability.
First 10 machines sold, another 15 under construction. Purchase price approximately £150,000 (€170,000 / US$195,000 indicative — not a published USD list price). Up to 16 hours without a battery swap. Designed around a 100-hectare vegetable or salad farm, with sales also to smaller growers. Payback claimed from one to three years. Additional investment planned for 2027, including a move toward broader cropping. Lightweeder independently tested by Niab, including ALS-resistant weeds. Patents US 12,185,712 B2 and EU EP 21 811 480.9.
Specifications describe this product family and its listed configuration. Read operating notes for limits and qualifications. Listed figures are manufacturer or press claims, not independent verification of current availability.
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Company profile
Earth Rover Ltd in Edgmond, Shropshire, builds CLAWS, a battery-and-solar weeding and scouting robot that uses concentrated pulsed light. CEO James Miller. First 10 machines sold and 15 more under construction. ESA collaboration for RTK satellite navigation.
Marketing executive
CEO
Field Test Engineer
Field relationships · Earth Rover
Robot · Earth Rover CLAWS
Trial · Active
United Kingdom
pulsed-light weeding
2024-season trials with five growers.
Company funding · Earth Rover
Aug 18, 2020
£250.0K GBP
Earth Rover raised £250,000 from the MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund managed by Mercia to launch its AI crop-scouting system.
£2.8M GBP
Earth Rover secured £2.8 million across two private investment rounds in 2025 while moving CLAWS from prototype to commercial sales.
Updates
Product news · Nov 4, 2026
James Miller, CEO of Earth Rover, said CLAWS has sold its first 10 machines, with another 15 under construction. The robot runs up to 16 hours on battery and solar. Track width adjusts from 1.5 to 2 metres. Purchase price is approximately £150,000 (€170,000 / US$195,000 indicative). Payback is claimed from one to three years.
Product news · Oct 22, 2026
James Miller, CEO of Earth Rover, said CLAWS has sold its first 10 pilot units, with 15 more under construction. The robot runs up to 16 hours without a battery swap on battery and solar power. Price is around £150,000, with a discount for early buyers. Payback is reported from one to three years. A Series A is planned for next year.
Product news · Oct 15, 2026
HARVEST (Hub for Agri-food Robotics Validation, Engineering and Skills Translation) names a consortium partner for knowledge exchange and industry engagement. Becky Dodds is the project lead. The hub runs for four years with a Riseholme test track and industry-run Living Labs on working farms and in food manufacturing sites. Robots demoed at the launch included the Saga robot and Earth Rover’s CLAWS weeding and scouting unit.
Product news · Oct 9, 2026
A consortium partner will lead knowledge exchange and industry engagement for HARVEST, the University of Lincoln robotics adoption hub. Becky Dodds is the project lead. The four-year programme uses industry-led Living Labs on working farms and in food manufacturing, plus a robotics test track at Riseholme. Launch-day demonstrations included the Saga robot and Earth Rover CLAWS (Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding and Scouting).
Podcasts
Podcast · Jul 30, 2026
Brash Ag
Speakers: James Miller, CEO of Earth Rover; Harry Ellis, Field Test Engineer. Apple Podcasts: published 30 Jul 2026 at 5:30 AM UTC, 56 min, season 4 episode 93. Also speaks with Jamie Dewhurst, Director at J&A Growers (Warwickshire hawthorn saplings). Concentrated-light autonomous weeding (CLAWS).
Earth Rover Ltd’s CLAWS is Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding & Scouting. Structured data on earthrover.farm: legal name Earth Rover Ltd.; address Agri-EPI Centre Ltd, Poultry Drive, Edgmond, Newport, Shropshire TF10 8JZ, England.
Eight built-in cameras identify individual plants in space and time and send crop data to a Farm Control System. Lightweight concept; 100% battery and solar-powered; claimed fully autonomous operation in different terrains and weather, day and night. Weeding: a concentrated pulse of energy / precise pulse of light aimed at the weed meristem, described as replacing herbicide drops — not framed as a conventional reflective laser beam. Zero-till / no soil disturbance and no surface-root damage versus mechanical weeding are company claims. Niab testing: Lightweeder “has been independently tested by Niab and confirmed that it controls different types of weeds including chemically (ALS) resistant weeds.” Scouting: image processing scans the field, indexes each plant’s location and size, and builds a digital replica. FIELD (Farmer Interface & Extracted Land Database) takes live crop data from stereo imaging cameras. Pioneers 2026 programme is on the official CLAWS listing. Patents listed: US 12,185,712 B2 and EU EP 21 811 480.9.
Homepage copy: CLAWS weeds and scouts on its own with precision image processing, AI, and satellite navigation. Battery and solar; “100% electric and chemical free.” Proprietary AI detects weeds versus crop, then targets the meristem with a precise amount of light. Navigation: centimetre accuracy using satellite-based control with RTK position correction; European Space Agency collaboration is named.
Earlier commercial snapshot from 17 July 2026: founded 2017; CEO James Miller. CLAWS moved from TRL 6 to TRL 8, with TRL 9 expected in 2026. £2.8 million private investment in 2025. At that point eight CLAWS units had been sold, with ten more due for delivery in early 2026; sales pipeline of about 200 units by 2028.
A 22 October 2026 written Q&A with James Miller from the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London: first 10 pilot units sold, 15 more under construction, around £150,000 with a pioneer discount, up to 16 hours without a battery swap, payback reported from one to three years, Series A planned for the following year.
A 4 November 2026 trade-press recap with James Miller: Earth Rover has sold its first 10 CLAWS robots and is building another 15. Track width adjustable from 1.5 to 2 metres. Up to 16 hours without a battery change. Purchase price approximately £150,000 (€170,000 / US$195,000; indicative conversions). Payback claimed 1 to 3 years. Initial target vegetable farms of around 100 hectares, with sales also to smaller growers. Expansion into broadacre crops and additional investment planned for 2027.
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Three farm robots, one company up close, and the week's funding and news, with sources. Free, weekly, from a farm owner. Latest issue →
