WEAI vs Farming GT
Two weeding machines, one verified table. Every figure below is sourced and dated; vendor claims are labelled and kept apart from independent results.
Swedish battery-electric weeding robot purpose-built for onion beds (and extending to carrots and beetroot) — AI vision plus GPS-RTK guide finger weeders that pull up to five weeds per second per unit across 5–8 rows on beds 1.50–3.20 m wide. The ~1,500–1,700 kg platform runs 8–12 h per day on ~7 kWh of swappable batteries at 1 km/h and can be lifted on a tractor three-point hitch for road transport. Dutch dealer Homburg Holland became importer (NL/BE), then acquired Ekobot outright in 2024, planning 20 machines for the Netherlands and Sweden in 2025.
Best for: Onion growers (and increasingly carrot/red-beet growers) in the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden with ~10 ha of beds per robot who want season-long autonomous mechanical in-row weed control with established dealer support via Homburg.Stuttgart-built autonomous hoeing robot that identifies crops from the 1 cm cotyledon stage across 100+ validated crops and weeds mechanically around the clock — 40+ robots working 1000+ fields, offered mainly as weeding-as-a-service.
Best for: Vegetable and row-crop growers in Germany and neighbouring EU countries with high hand-weeding costs who want herbicide-free in-row hoeing without buying hardware.| WEAI Verified 2026-07-17 | Farming GT Verified 2026-07-16 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Weeding | Weeding |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | Sweden | Germany |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | CE-marked | CE-marked |
| Lead time | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-17 | 2026-07-16 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Battery-electric — 2 batteries, ~7 kWh total, manually swapped; 8–12 h operation per day | Battery-electric · 24+ h runtime |
| Required tractor power | Is the vehicle (three-point-hitch pickup by tractor for road transport) | Not required (self-propelled, no tractor or driver) |
| Dimensions | Bed widths 1.50–3.20 m, adjustable row spacing, 5–8 rows; tool/detection height electrically adjustable by 50 cm | Track width variable 138–225 cm (convertible in ~15 min) |
| Weight | ~1,500–1,700 kg (vendor pages state 1,700 kg; Future Farming reported ~1,500 kg for the new platform) | Not disclosed |
| Min farm size | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Productivity | Keeps up to ~10 ha weed-free per robot per season | Up to 10 ha per 24 h, unsupervised day and night |
| Max speed | 1 km/h working speed | Not disclosed |
| Sensors | AI camera crop/weed detection · GPS-RTK navigation · safety bumpers, e-stops and cameras | AI multispectral plant/stem detection from 1 cm size · row guidance without GNSS dependency · collision and rain sensors |
| Price & model | ||
| Price (EUR) | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Native price | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Business model | Sold and serviced via Homburg Holland (owner since 2024) in NL/BE; Ekobot AB channel in Sweden | Primarily weeding-as-a-service; direct machine sale on request |
| Ongoing cost | Battery swapping/charging; finger-weeder wear parts; Homburg service, spares, training and warranty | Service pricing not published |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Onion yield +6% · vendor | Herbicide use −100% · vendor |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | EU-built series machine sold in NL/SE via an established dealer; CE marking not independently verified | CE-conform per vendor (Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC compliance stated) |
| Machinery Regulation | Swedish-built, Dutch-owned series product; conformity maintained under the EU machinery regime | Vendor states 2006/42/EC compliance; 2023/1230 transition status not published |
| CAP subsidy | Herbicide-free weeding in high-value vegetables supports CAP eco-scheme and organic conversion goals | Herbicide-free mechanical weeding aligns with eco-scheme goals; no formal listing verified |
"—" 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.