Autonomous robotic barn machines, verified

The world's first ceiling-suspended broiler-house robot, from Barcelona-based Faromatics — riding overhead rails to monitor thermal comfort, air quality, light and sound, spotting dead birds, litter problems and equipment faults with AI. Installed across five European countries (ES, NL, DE, plus UK/FR rollouts) before AGCO acquired Faromatics in September 2021; in January 2023 AGCO's Cumberland brand relaunched the technology as 'Scout'. The original ChickenBoy is no longer sold under the Faromatics name.

GEA's battery-powered manure scraper robot for slatted floors — a flat, quiet 400 kg unit that pushes slurry through the slats with up to 100 kg of pushing force, turns fully within 2 m and slips under gates. The lateral-guidance SRone cleans up to 8,000 m² of slatted floor per day; the programmable SRone+ extends that to 12,000 m² with custom route plans. Runs up to 19.5 h per day on a 4.5 h quick charge.

Manure robot for solid barn floors from Dutch manure-handling specialist JOZ — a low 68 cm collector that carries the manure it gathers (350 or 500 litres depending on push width) instead of pushing a growing heap, navigating unlimited programmable routes via floor transponders. Connected to the JOZ Management System for 24/7 remote monitoring with SMS obstacle alerts; JOZ pitches the PRO generation as its most powerful robot for intensive conditions, coping with straw bedding up to 6 cm.

Lely's free-navigating manure robot for solid and semi-closed barn floors — instead of scraping manure ahead of itself it vacuums the slurry into an onboard tank, spraying water at the front for better intake and at the back to leave grip on the floor. Dumping, wireless charging and water refilling happen at one central station; the C2 generation handles barns of up to roughly 120 cows and routes are managed from a mobile app.

Modular automatic feeding system from Dutch feed-mixer specialist Trioliet — a feed kitchen (T10–T40 variants, from stationary mixers to feed floors for silage blocks and bales) supplies a robot that mixes and distributes rations around the clock. Robots come suspended, battery-powered or wheel-driven; the wheel-driven WP 2 300 carries a 3 m³ chamber with two vertical stainless-steel augers and a dual-side discharge belt, powered continuously from an overhead rail so it never runs out of battery. Dual-Flow mixing handles batches from roughly 60 kg.

Free-driving feed pusher and concentrate dispenser from Austrian feeding specialist Wasserbauer — a 700 kg, 24 V robot that navigates by 5 mm floor magnets set roughly every 2 m, makes up to 99 passes per day and, unlike a plain pusher, uses a special auger to throw feed loosely back to the trough without pressing it. Its 120-litre container (or 2 × 60 l for two components) doses concentrate, minerals or liquids onto the base feed along the way; the drive-over charging station manages batteries automatically.

DeLaval's robotic feed pusher-and-remixer — unlike plain pushers, a twin-spiralled rotating auger remixes the ration while repositioning it at the feed fence, keeping roughage strands intact so refused compacted feed stays appetising. Adaptive Drive adjusts speed and track to feed type and quantity; runs around the clock, up to 10 trips a day. Direct competitor to the Lely Juno.

DeLaval's voluntary milking robot (launched January 2020) — the first milking system to automatically confirm pregnancy, via in-line progesterone sampling (RePro) during milking.

The independent alternative to the big-three milking robots — Fullwood (milking robots since 1996, rebranded from Fullwood JOZ) has built the M²erlin since 2014 around an open box, natural walk-through entrance/exit and a quiet electric robot arm. Ten years of incremental upgrades include TDS2 laser udder recognition (2020), FullCount real-time somatic cell counting (2021) and the FULLSENSE software platform (2023). Hundreds of farms run it worldwide; the Meridian variant does robotic batch milking in groups.

GEA's box-style voluntary milking robot — In-Liner Everything performs stimulation, teat cleaning, forestripping, milking and post-dipping in a single attachment, in the most compact box footprint (5.3 m²) on the market. Scales from single box to multi-box and robotic rotary; sold and serviced in Switzerland via GEA Solution Centers.

Rail-guided all-in-one feeding robot from Tyrolean specialist Hetwin — weighs, cuts, mixes, doses and pushes feed around the clock from an overhead rail, with two horizontal mixing augers producing a homogeneous ration from batches as small as 50 kg. Aimed at medium herds of roughly 50–150 animals; sold and serviced in Switzerland via Harvestore.

Robotic milking system — cows milk on their own schedule around the clock; the A5 Next (June 2025) adds a new OS with over-the-air updates, laser+camera teat detection and an automatic milk filter.

Centralised milking architecture for large herds (announced August 2025) — up to 18 Astronaut robots share one control room for vacuum, cleaning, cooling and long-distance milk transport.

Lely's battery-electric automatic feed pusher — follows pre-installed floor strips with ultrasound distance sensing to push feed to the fence up to 48 times a day, returning to its charging station between runs. Current line is Juno / Juno Flex; the lidar-navigating Juno Max for 800+ cow farms was unveiled September 2024 with commercial launch expected 2027. Swiss sales and service via Lely Center Härkingen.

Lely's automatic feeding system — a feed kitchen plus a battery-electric mixing-and-feeding robot (MFR) that weighs, mixes and dispenses fresh ration on demand, scanning feed height at the fence 24/7. Current generation is the Vector MFR Next (launched March 2025) with 800 kg loading capacity; over 1,000 systems sold, in use in 31 countries. Sold and serviced in Switzerland via Lely Center Härkingen.

Small autonomous barn robot for cage-free layer, breeder and turkey houses — patrols the litter on 4-wheel drive, stimulating birds with lights, sounds and lasers to keep flocks moving, cut floor eggs and aerate litter. Developed by Breton startup Tibot (200+ Spoutnic/T-Moov units in 22 countries); Tibot's assets were acquired by fellow French poultry-robotics firm Octopus Biosafety in November 2022, which now manufactures and sells the T-Moov.