ARA vs Prospr
Two spraying machines, one verified table. Every figure below is sourced and dated; vendor claims are labelled and kept apart from independent results.
Tractor-drawn smart sprayer that treats each plant individually with centimetre precision.
Best for: Growers cutting herbicide/pesticide spend hard while keeping an existing tractor fleet.New Zealand-engineered autonomous spraying vehicle for orchards and vineyards, built by Robotics Plus (Tauranga, NZ) and sold/supported today through Yamaha Agriculture, formed when Yamaha Motor completed its acquisition of Robotics Plus in 2025. A hybrid diesel-electric drivetrain (Tier 4 generator + battery pack + independent wheel motors) drives RTK-GPS-guided autonomous spraying with quick-swap Q Series (foliar) and H Series (under-canopy herbicide) sprayers. Commercially deployed in the US, Australia and New Zealand; a published case study (Treasury Wine Estates, NZ) shows two units covering 300 ha of vineyard across eight 15-hour operating days.
Best for: Larger commercial orchard or vineyard operations in the US, Australia or New Zealand — the Treasury Wine Estates case study (two units, 300 ha, NZD 115,000/year net savings after subscription costs) shows the economics working at estate scale, backed by a real Yamaha Agriculture / Croplands / Burrows Tractor dealer network.| ARA Verified 2026-07-16 | Prospr Verified 2026-07-19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Spraying | Spraying |
| Autonomy | AI-assisted | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | Switzerland | New Zealand |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | CE-marked | Pending |
| Lead time | ~18 wk | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-16 | 2026-07-19 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Tractor PTO + hydraulics; onboard AI compute | Hybrid diesel-electric — Tier 4 diesel generator + regenerative braking + high-capacity battery pack, powering independent electric drive motors at each wheel |
| Required tractor power | 80 hp minimum | Not required (self-propelled) — hybrid diesel-electric drivetrain, ~50 kW drive output |
| Dimensions | 6.00 m working width folded to 3.0 m transport | 5,240 x 1,950 x 3,600 mm (206 x 77 x 141 in, L x W x H); minimum row spacing 1.85 m (6.07 ft); minimum headland 7.1 m (23 ft), spot-turns around the rear axle |
| Weight | 1,900 kg | 2,000 kg / 4,409 lb (unladen, without payload) |
| Min farm size | 30 ha | Not disclosed |
| Productivity | Up to 4 ha/hour | 300 ha (740 ac) covered by two units across eight 15-hour operating days in the Treasury Wine Estates case study — about 1.3 ha/hr (3.2 ac/hr) per unit, up from 1 ha/hr (2.4 ac/hr) with a conventional tractor-mounted sprayer |
| Max speed | 7 km/h working | Not disclosed |
| Sensors | High-res cameras · per-plant recognition · section control | RTK GPS precision navigation; LiDAR + camera sensor fusion for obstacle detection and collision avoidance |
| Price & model | ||
| Price (EUR) | €165,000 | Not disclosed |
| Native price | €165,000 | Not disclosed |
| Business model | Buy · lease · contractor revenue-share options | Contact-sales / subscription-inclusive model — Yamaha Agriculture's own case study nets savings "after subscription costs" but no purchase price or subscription terms are published; sold direct and through the Yamaha Agriculture / Croplands (AU, NZ) / Burrows Tractor (US) dealer network. |
| Ongoing cost | €3,200/yr software + agronomic subscription | Subscription-style cost referenced in published case studies but exact terms not disclosed; parts and preventative-maintenance kits supplied through the dealer network. |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Herbicide applied (dock control, grassland) −90%+ · independent | Vineyard spraying work rate +34% · vendor |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | CE marked (2022) | Not confirmed — no CE-marking evidence found; the product is not marketed or sold in the EU (deployment is US, Australia and New Zealand only) |
| Machinery Regulation | Compliant — Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 | Not applicable — no EU market presence found; would fall under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 autonomous-machine provisions if ever placed on the EU market |
| CAP subsidy | Eligible under CAP; SW & FR precision-spraying subsidies | Not applicable — outside the EU, no CAP relevance; sold in the US, Australia and New Zealand only |
"—" means the manufacturer has not disclosed the figure; we never estimate silently. Model either machine's payback with your own numbers on its ROI calculator page.