Spraying · head to head
Selective Spraying System (SSP) vs Mini GUSS
Two spraying machines, one verified table. Every figure below is sourced and dated; vendor claims are labelled and kept apart from independent results.
Greeneye Technology · Israel
Israeli-developed retrofit precision-spray kit that adds real-time selective spraying to a customer's existing self-propelled sprayer — boom-mounted RGB cameras (1.5 m spacing) feed AI that classifies weeds to species level and fires an added line of individually pulsed nozzles, while a second broadcast line still applies residual herbicide. Commercially launched in Israel (2021) and the US Midwest (2022), expanded to cotton in 2025; not confirmed as sold in the EU.
Best for: Established US/Israel row-crop growers (corn, soybean, cotton) running large, modern self-propelled sprayers (2014-model-year or newer) who want to cut non-residual herbicide spend without buying a dedicated robot.GUSS Automation (John Deere subsidiary) · United States
California-built (Kingsburg) autonomous orchard/vineyard sprayer — GUSS Automation's smaller sibling to the base Orchard GUSS, built roughly 25% smaller to fit high-density orchard and vineyard rows. Same driverless GPS+LiDAR row navigation and laptop-based fleet supervision as the base machine (one operator can watch up to 8 units), on a 400-gallon tank with interchangeable vineyard and apple/high-density-orchard spray towers rather than the base machine's larger 600-gallon tank. Sold and serviced only through the John Deere/GUSS dealer network in the US and Australia; GUSS Automation is now a John Deere subsidiary following an acquisition confirmed on GUSS's own site.
Best for: Commercial vineyard, high-density-orchard and berry operations in the US or Australia that need a narrower, lower-profile autonomous sprayer than the base Orchard GUSS — its standard height (5 ft 4 in) and 400-gallon tank are sized for tighter row spacing rather than large tree-nut orchards.| Selective Spraying System (SSP) Verified 2026-07-18 | Mini GUSS Verified 2026-07-19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Spraying | Spraying |
| Autonomy | AI-assisted | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | Israel | United States |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | Pending | Pending |
| Lead time | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-18 | 2026-07-19 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Retrofit add-on with no engine of its own — hosted on the customer's existing sprayer, typically a diesel self-propelled unit | Diesel — Cummins F3.8 173 hp Stage V engine; 77-gallon fuel cell gives roughly 12 hours of runtime (agtecher.com; not listed on gussag.com's own Mini GUSS page) |
| Required tractor power | Not required as a towed implement; retrofits onto self-propelled sprayers (reported hosts include Hagie, John Deere, Case IH and New Holland, 2014-model-year or newer) | Not applicable — self-propelled 4WD/4-wheel-steer platform, not a tractor implement |
| Dimensions | Custom aluminum dual-wet boom; one reported installation used a 120 ft (36.6 m) boom on a Hagie STS12 — width follows the host sprayer | 19 ft long x 6 ft wide x 5 ft 4 in tall (standard/transport configuration); 9 ft 2 in tall with the Apple Tower fitted; 9 ft tall with the Vineyard Tower fitted (gussag.com) |
| Weight | Not disclosed | Approx. 8,800-8,840 lb (3,990-4,010 kg) empty — two secondary listings give close but non-identical figures (agtecher.com: 8,840 lb / 4,010 kg; agricultural-robotics.com: 8,800 lb / 3,992 kg); not published on gussag.com itself |
| Min farm size | Not disclosed by the vendor; independent trade reporting put payback under 2 years mainly for farms above roughly 3,000 acres | Not disclosed as a number; GUSS markets the Mini GUSS at commercial vineyard/orchard/berry scale, not hobby-farm scale |
| Productivity | Not disclosed as a throughput figure; each captured image is analyzed once in real time as the sprayer passes | 77-gallon fuel cell gives approximately 12-hour runtime (agtecher.com); one operator can monitor/supervise up to 8 GUSS units at once from a laptop (GUSS fleet-supervision model, per agtecher.com and GUSS company materials) |
| Max speed | Up to 25 km/h (vendor); around 24 km/h (15 mph) demonstrated in independent field reporting | Not disclosed |
| Sensors | RGB cameras mounted at 1.5 m intervals along the boom (up to 50 fps reported in the field), sub-millimeter image resolution, species-level AI weed classification, day/night operation | GPS, LiDAR and onboard vehicle sensors for autonomous row navigation and obstacle avoidance (agtecher.com; consistent with the GUSS family's published navigation stack) |
| Price & model | ||
| Price (EUR) | Not disclosed | ≈€261,000 (converted from the agtecher.com USD listing; not independently confirmed by the manufacturer) |
| Native price | Not disclosed | $283,660 USD (agtecher.com equipment-marketplace listing — GUSS Automation does not publish Mini GUSS pricing on its own site, same as the sibling base GUSS profile in this catalog; a separate secondary listing (agricultural-robotics.com) gives a bundled $300K-400K range across the whole GUSS/Mini GUSS/Herbicide GUSS family, not Mini-GUSS-specific, which is a loose but not contradictory cross-check) |
| Business model | Retrofit purchase onto the grower's existing sprayer; vendor states no subscription fee for the AI/software. Independent trade press (Sprayers101, 2023) reported an installed cost of roughly $239,000 for one 120 ft dual-boom configuration — a single reported case, not an official price list, and not reconfirmed directly by Greeneye. | Buy, sold and serviced through the John Deere/GUSS Automation dealer network in the US and Australia (gussag.com dealer locator); no Mini-GUSS-specific lease or pay-for-service option was found (contrast Herbicide GUSS, which GUSS does offer as a service option per the sibling base-GUSS profile). |
| Ongoing cost | No disclosed software/subscription fee (vendor states "no subscription fees"); ongoing costs would include nozzle, camera and dual-tank wear parts — not itemized by the vendor. | Diesel fuel, tires and spray consumables (nozzles, pump wear parts); no published service-cost figures were found. GUSS's own Mini GUSS page notes eligibility for California's CARB FARMER equipment-replacement incentive funding, a US-specific program, not a running cost. |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Non-residual herbicide use vs. broadcast spraying (2022 University of Nebraska-Lincoln corn trial) -87% to -94% · independent | Chemical and water use with the Smart Apply option up to 50% chemical and water savings on average (vendor figure) · vendor |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | Not disclosed — no CE marking or EU distribution found; commercially sold only in the US and Israel as of 2026 | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found on gussag.com; the manufacturer's own dealer locator lists only US and Australia coverage |
| Machinery Regulation | Not applicable in current markets; would need to meet Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 provisions for automated spraying equipment if placed on the EU market | Not applicable — no evidence Mini GUSS has been placed on the EU market |
| CAP subsidy | Not currently sold in the EU; if introduced, spot-spraying would support Sustainable Use Directive / CAP eco-scheme herbicide-reduction targets | Not applicable — no EU/CAP-linked deployment found; in the US, GUSS's own Mini GUSS page notes eligibility for California's CARB FARMER equipment-replacement incentive program, which is unrelated to EU CAP |
"—" 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.