WEAI vs Robovator
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.Tractor-mounted, vision-guided intra-row hoeing implement from Danish manufacturer F. Poulsen Engineering — a camera above each row spots individual plants and hydraulically swings weeding knives out and back around them, removing weeds between plants without touching the crop. Commercially sold since the early 2010s and independently trialled in US vegetable production; configurable from 5 to 31 rows and adjustable to 25–75 cm row spacing.
Best for: Vegetable, sugar-beet and row-crop growers with a suitable PTO tractor who want camera-guided mechanical in-row weeding to cut herbicide use and hand-weeding labour, across a wide range of farm scales (5- to 31-row configurations).| WEAI Verified 2026-07-17 | Robovator Verified 2026-07-18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Weeding | Weeding |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | AI-assisted |
| Country of origin | Sweden | Denmark |
| 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 | Tractor-mounted implement, PTO-driven hydraulics (~1 hp per row) |
| Required tractor power | Is the vehicle (three-point-hitch pickup by tractor for road transport) | 3-point-hitch mounted; requires tractor PTO shaft speed of at least 420 rpm (hydraulic pressure and lamps cut out below ~360 rpm) |
| Dimensions | Bed widths 1.50–3.20 m, adjustable row spacing, 5–8 rows; tool/detection height electrically adjustable by 50 cm | Configurable 5 to 31 rows; row spacing adjustable 25–75 cm (9–30 in); US-market spec sheet lists 6–12 lines per bed with 60–84 in bed spacing |
| Weight | ~1,500–1,700 kg (vendor pages state 1,700 kg; Future Farming reported ~1,500 kg for the new platform) | 700 kg (1,500 lb) base weight |
| Min farm size | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Productivity | Keeps up to ~10 ha weed-free per robot per season | Roughly 1.5–2 acres/hour depending on soil and plant conditions (per Pacific Ag Rentals, US distributor); manufacturer-stated field speed 2–8 km/h (1.2–5 mph) |
| Max speed | 1 km/h working speed | 2–8 km/h (1.2–5 mph) |
| Sensors | AI camera crop/weed detection · GPS-RTK navigation · safety bumpers, e-stops and cameras | One plant-detection camera per row for image-based crop location, functions in low light; automatic self-centring side-shift (±40 cm range, engages after ~1 m of travel) |
| 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 — tractor-mounted implement sold direct from F. Poulsen Engineering (Denmark) and via distributors, including Agri Evolution (Netherlands, EU) and Pacific Ag Rentals (Salinas, California, western US) |
| Ongoing cost | Battery swapping/charging; finger-weeder wear parts; Homburg service, spares, training and warranty | Wear parts (weeding knives/blades, camera lens care), hydraulic fluid and PTO shaft maintenance; no software subscription published |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Onion yield +6% · vendor | Intra-row weed removal vs. a standard cultivator +18 to +41 percentage points · independent |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | EU-built series machine sold in NL/SE via an established dealer; CE marking not independently verified | No CE-marking statement found in the manufacturer's public materials, so compliance is listed as not confirmed — although CE marking is legally required to place machinery on the EU market and F. Poulsen actively sells within the EU (Denmark, and via Netherlands distributor Agri Evolution) |
| Machinery Regulation | Swedish-built, Dutch-owned series product; conformity maintained under the EU machinery regime | Tractor-mounted implement falling under the EU Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230; the tractor operator remains in control at all times |
| CAP subsidy | Herbicide-free weeding in high-value vegetables supports CAP eco-scheme and organic conversion goals | Herbicide-free/reduced mechanical in-row 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.