WEAI vs Robocrop InRow Weeder
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.Long-established tractor-mounted vision-guided weeder — video image analysis at 30 frames/second locates each individual plant and steers rotating in-row weeding discs around it, killing weeds between rows AND between plants within the row to ~8 mm of the stem. The 2025-season Robocrop AI upgrade adds green-on-green recognition fusing colour, infrared and depth imaging. Like One Smart Spray, this is AI-driven intelligence on a conventional tractor implement, not a standalone robot.
Best for: Transplanted vegetable growers (lettuce, brassicas, celery) and sugar-beet farms replacing hand-weeding gangs or herbicides with camera-guided mechanical in-row weeding on their existing tractor.| WEAI Verified 2026-07-17 | Robocrop InRow Weeder Verified 2026-07-16 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Weeding | Weeding |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | AI-assisted |
| Country of origin | Sweden | United Kingdom |
| 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 | Tractor-mounted implement, hydraulic drive |
| Required tractor power | Is the vehicle (three-point-hitch pickup by tractor for road transport) | Conventional tractor required; hydraulic side-shift steering of the toolbar |
| Dimensions | Bed widths 1.50–3.20 m, adjustable row spacing, 5–8 rows; tool/detection height electrically adjustable by 50 cm | Working widths up to 6 m / up to 20 rows supplied; larger builds available |
| 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 | Forward speeds up to 6 plant spacings per second |
| Max speed | 1 km/h working speed | Crop-spacing dependent (up to 6 plants/s per row) |
| Sensors | AI camera crop/weed detection · GPS-RTK navigation · safety bumpers, e-stops and cameras | Robocrop video image analysis at 30 fps · Robocrop AI (2025) adds colour + infrared + depth green-on-green plant recognition · 10.1" in-cab terminal |
| 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 | Buy via Garford and its UK/international dealer network |
| Ongoing cost | Battery swapping/charging; finger-weeder wear parts; Homburg service, spares, training and warranty | Wear metal (discs, blades), camera care; no software subscription published |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Onion yield +6% · vendor | In-row weeding precision Mechanical weeding to ~8 mm from the plant stem · vendor |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | EU-built series machine sold in NL/SE via an established dealer; CE marking not independently verified | CE marked for EU sales; UKCA for the UK market |
| Machinery Regulation | Swedish-built, Dutch-owned series product; conformity maintained under the EU machinery regime | Tractor-mounted implement under the EU machinery regime; operator remains in control |
| CAP subsidy | Herbicide-free weeding in high-value vegetables supports CAP eco-scheme and organic conversion goals | Mechanical/herbicide-free weeding supports CAP eco-scheme and organic conversion measures |
"—" 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.