WEAI vs AX-1
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.Norwegian ultra-precision weeding robot for open-field vegetables — an AI vision system detects individual weeds and a patented Single-Drop nozzle (SDT) fires one micro-droplet of herbicide directly onto each weed at 6x6mm resolution, cutting herbicide input by a manufacturer-claimed average of 96.6%. Independently tested by Wageningen University & Research at over 99% spray-drift reduction (Dutch DRT99, the system's highest class), and commercially deployed since 2021 across Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia, with a 2025 Kubota partnership now expanding EU dealer-network sales.
Best for: Open-field vegetable and root-crop growers (carrots, onions, beets, celery/celeriac, spinach, salads, parsley and similar) in Norway and neighbouring EU markets who still spray herbicide and want to sharply cut volume and drift without switching to purely mechanical or laser weeding.| WEAI Verified 2026-07-17 | AX-1 Verified 2026-07-18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Weeding | Weeding |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | Sweden | Norway |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | CE-marked | Pending |
| Lead time | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-17 | 2026-07-18 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Battery-electric — 2 batteries, ~7 kWh total, manually swapped; 8–12 h operation per day | Electric drive with a small onboard petrol generator (per GOFAR robotics database; not itemized on the manufacturer's own site) |
| Required tractor power | Is the vehicle (three-point-hitch pickup by tractor for road transport) | Not required (self-propelled autonomous unit) |
| Dimensions | Bed widths 1.50–3.20 m, adjustable row spacing, 5–8 rows; tool/detection height electrically adjustable by 50 cm | Approx. 220 x 215 x 150 cm (third-party listing; not published by Kilter) |
| Weight | ~1,500–1,700 kg (vendor pages state 1,700 kg; Future Farming reported ~1,500 kg for the new platform) | 280 kg dry / 365 kg wet (GOFAR database; distributed to minimise soil compaction) |
| Min farm size | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Productivity | Keeps up to ~10 ha weed-free per robot per season | Not disclosed — third-party estimates conflict (0.33-1 ha/hr) and Kilter does not publish a figure |
| Max speed | 1 km/h working speed | Up to 2 km/h (third-party listing; not published by Kilter) |
| Sensors | AI camera crop/weed detection · GPS-RTK navigation · safety bumpers, e-stops and cameras | AI vision with a deep-learning neural network for real-time weed/crop detection at 6x6mm targeting resolution; RTK-GNSS (dual-antenna) and IMU for autonomous navigation (third-party listing) |
| Price & model | ||
| Price (EUR) | Not disclosed | ≈€130,000 |
| Native price | Not disclosed | ≈€130,000 (third-party: Future Farming robot database — Kilter quotes individually) |
| Business model | Sold and serviced via Homburg Holland (owner since 2024) in NL/BE; Ekobot AB channel in Sweden | Buy — direct from Kilter AS (Langhus, Norway) via a consultative sales process (farm details submitted for a quote; no public price list), or through regional distributors such as Croplands (Australia). A Kubota partnership (announced at Agritechnica 2025) is expanding dealer-network sales in Germany and the Netherlands through 2025-2026. |
| Ongoing cost | Battery swapping/charging; finger-weeder wear parts; Homburg service, spares, training and warranty | Herbicide/bio-herbicide refills (any crop-registered agrochemical usable in a boom sprayer, e.g. pelargonic acid); Single-Drop nozzle module (SDT-N2) wear parts. Specific service cost figures not disclosed. |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Onion yield +6% · vendor | Spray drift vs. a conventional reference sprayer More than 99% spray-drift reduction — qualifies for DRT99, the highest class in the Dutch drift-reduction classification system · independent |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | EU-built series machine sold in NL/SE via an established dealer; CE marking not independently verified | No explicit CE-marking statement found on Kilter's public materials; the AX-1 is sold and in active commercial/pilot use in EU member states (Sweden, Germany, Netherlands) and passed independent Dutch DRT99 spray-drift certification (WUR/TCT) |
| Machinery Regulation | Swedish-built, Dutch-owned series product; conformity maintained under the EU machinery regime | Not explicitly addressed by the manufacturer; as an autonomous field-spraying machine placed on EU markets, would fall under the autonomous-machine provisions of Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 if formally assessed |
| CAP subsidy | Herbicide-free weeding in high-value vegetables supports CAP eco-scheme and organic conversion goals | Precision spot-application (manufacturer-claimed ~95-96.6% herbicide reduction) supports CAP eco-scheme and integrated-pest-management / pesticide-reduction objectives |
"—" 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.