WEAI vs RoamIO-HCW
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.Canadian (Oshawa, Ontario) multipurpose autonomous field robot — Korechi's largest and first wheeled RoamIO model, built to seed, weed, cultivate, mow, soil-sample, data-log and transport across an adjustable-width chassis. Battery-electric with cm-level RTK GNSS navigation and dual AI-camera obstacle detection; Korechi's own product page states it is "now taking orders." Pricing is not published by Korechi itself — an independent buyer's guide lists a starting price of roughly $80,000 (final price varies by configuration) — and the company currently serves only the US and Canadian markets.
Best for: Vegetable and horticultural growers in the US or Canada wanting one multipurpose autonomous tool-carrier (seeding, weeding, cultivating, mowing, transport, data-logging) from a small Ontario-based robotics maker that is actively taking orders.| WEAI Verified 2026-07-17 | RoamIO-HCW Verified 2026-07-19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Weeding | Weeding |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | Sweden | Canada |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | CE-marked | Pending |
| Lead time | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-17 | 2026-07-19 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Battery-electric — 2 batteries, ~7 kWh total, manually swapped; 8–12 h operation per day | Battery-electric — 20 kWh "safe lithium chemistry" pack rated 10+ years of life; optional extra battery packs or a petrol/diesel generator for extended range |
| Required tractor power | Is the vehicle (three-point-hitch pickup by tractor for road transport) | Not required (self-propelled); 13.4 hp (10 kW) brushless DC motors, peak 22.2 hp (16.6 kW) |
| Dimensions | Bed widths 1.50–3.20 m, adjustable row spacing, 5–8 rows; tool/detection height electrically adjustable by 50 cm | 74" x 70.5"–83.5" x 64" (1.87 m x 1.79–2.12 m x 1.62 m, L x W x H); width adjustable 47.5"–75.5" (1.2–1.91 m) in 2" increments |
| Weight | ~1,500–1,700 kg (vendor pages state 1,700 kg; Future Farming reported ~1,500 kg for the new platform) | 1,300 lb (590 kg) |
| Min farm size | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Productivity | Keeps up to ~10 ha weed-free per robot per season | Not disclosed |
| Max speed | 1 km/h working speed | 4 mph (6.5 kph) |
| Sensors | AI camera crop/weed detection · GPS-RTK navigation · safety bumpers, e-stops and cameras | Multi-constellation multi-band GNSS RTK with dual antenna for cm-level positioning; dual AI-powered cameras for obstacle/collision detection; physical and remote e-stop |
| 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, direct from Korechi Innovations (Oshawa, ON) — the RoamIO-HCW product page states "WE ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS"; contact required for a configuration-specific quote/demo, no published dealer network. Korechi publishes no price; Future Farming's buyer's guide listed a US$80,000 starting figure at a Nov-2023 exchange rate — a dated third-party data point, not a verified current price. |
| Ongoing cost | Battery swapping/charging; finger-weeder wear parts; Homburg service, spares, training and warranty | Not disclosed in detail. Optional paid add-ons found: extra battery packs, a petrol/diesel generator for range extension, an auxiliary data-logging computer, LED floodlights, and structural mounts for extra sensors/implements. |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Onion yield +6% · vendor | Labour and fuel use for field tasks Up to 80% reduction (vendor claim; no independent measurement found) · vendor |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | EU-built series machine sold in NL/SE via an established dealer; CE marking not independently verified | No CE marking found — Korechi states on its own homepage that it "currently serve[s] the US and Canadian markets"; no EU sales or compliance evidence found. |
| Machinery Regulation | Swedish-built, Dutch-owned series product; conformity maintained under the EU machinery regime | Not placed on the EU market; would need to meet the autonomous-machinery provisions of Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 if it ever entered the EU. |
| CAP subsidy | Herbicide-free weeding in high-value vegetables supports CAP eco-scheme and organic conversion goals | Not applicable — US/Canada-market machine with no EU sales, so no CAP eco-scheme relevance. |
"—" 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.