Herbicide GUSS vs R150
Two spraying machines, one verified table. Every figure below is sourced and dated; vendor claims are labelled and kept apart from independent results.
GUSS Automation's dedicated herbicide sprayer for orchards and vineyards — the same self-driving 4WD/4-wheel-steer platform as base GUSS, but built to spot-spray weeds in row middles instead of spraying the tree/vine canopy, using multiple onboard weed-detection sensors to target individual weeds rather than blanket-spraying. Diesel-powered (John Deere 4.5L 74 hp Stage V engine, no DEF) with a 600-gallon tank and adjustable 15-19 ft breakaway spray booms. Like the rest of the GUSS line it is sold and serviced only through John Deere dealers, confirmed only in the US and Australia, with no EU presence found.
Best for: Large commercial orchard and vineyard operations in the US or Australia (same footprint as base GUSS — almonds, walnuts, pistachios, citrus, stone fruit, wine grapes) wanting to cut herbicide use and weeding labour by autonomously spot-spraying individual weeds in row middles instead of blanket spraying or hand/mechanical weeding.Modular electric unmanned ground vehicle from XAG (Guangzhou, China) built around one chassis that swaps between three payloads — RevoSpray Ground 2 (150 L tank, 12 m spray width) for orchard/vineyard spraying, RevoMower 2.0 for cutting shrubs and reeds, and a 200 kg-capacity material-transport module — navigated by dual-antenna RTK plus stereo-vision/4D-radar obstacle sensing. Publicly sold since June 2021 (launched first in Japan) and still listed with full specs on XAG's own site, but it is XAG's 2022-generation rover — the company unveiled a separate, newer "R Series" (R100/R200) at Agritechnica 2025 as its current smart-farm rover line, and reseller stock fluctuates — buyers should confirm live availability directly with XAG or a dealer rather than assume stock.
Best for: Specialty-crop growers (orchards, vineyards) in a market with an active XAG distributor who want one chassis that swaps between spraying, mowing and material-transport payloads instead of buying separate dedicated machines.| Herbicide GUSS Verified 2026-07-19 | R150 Verified 2026-07-19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Spraying | Spraying |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | United States | China |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | Pending | Pending |
| Lead time | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-19 | 2026-07-19 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Diesel — John Deere 4.5L 74 hp Stage V engine, no DEF required (manufacturer brochure). A third-party directory instead describes a 3.8L Cummins engine; not confirmed by GUSS Automation, whose own current brochure states John Deere. | Battery-electric — two hot-swappable XAG B13960S smart batteries (48.1 V, 20,000 mAh / 962 Wh each) |
| Required tractor power | Not applicable — self-propelled 4WD/4-wheel-steer platform, not a tractor implement | Not required (self-propelled electric UGV) |
| Dimensions | 23 ft 6 in long x 6 ft 4 in tall x 8 ft 4 in transport width; 15-19 ft adjustable spray boom width (manufacturer brochure) | 1695 × 1205 × 1205 mm (L×W×H) |
| Weight | 12,460 lb (5,652 kg) empty — manufacturer brochure. (A third-party directory cites "5,652 lb", which is actually this same kg figure mislabeled as lb — a units error, not a genuine conflict.) | 188 kg net weight; 200 kg load capacity (excluding payload system) |
| Min farm size | Not disclosed as a number; manufacturer brochure markets the GUSS/Herbicide GUSS line at small, medium and large operation scales (its "small scale" case study is still a professional commercial grower, not a hobby farm) | Not disclosed |
| Productivity | 90-gallon fuel cell gives approximately 13-14 hour run time; one operator can monitor/supervise up to 8 GUSS/Herbicide GUSS machines at once; manufacturer case study cites refill downtime cut from a typical 45 minutes to about 3 minutes | Not disclosed |
| Max speed | Not disclosed | 1.2 m/s (about 4.3 km/h) |
| Sensors | GPS + LiDAR + vehicle sensors for autonomous navigation (manufacturer states GPS alone is unreliable beneath tree canopy, hence the added sensor stack); multiple onboard precision weed-detection sensors trigger targeted spot-spraying instead of blanket application; GUSS Safety Vest disables drive mechanics when a nearby worker's vest is detected | Dual-antenna RTK GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, BDS-2/3, Galileo, QZSS) for cm-level positioning; stereo-vision front-obstacle detection; 4D imaging radar; headlamps for night operation |
| Price & model | ||
| Price (EUR) | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Native price | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Business model | Buy or pay-for-service, sold and serviced through GUSS Automation (Kingsburg, California — a wholly owned John Deere subsidiary since August 2025) and John Deere dealers, confirmed in the US and Australia. GUSS Automation publishes no unit price; a third-party ag-tech directory (unconfirmed by the manufacturer) cites an indicative $301,000-$400,000 depending on configuration. | Equipment purchase, direct or through XAG's distributor network (xa.com/en/about/agent). XAG does not publish a price on its own product pages. One US reseller (Ripping It Outdoors) lists the R150 sprayer configuration at about $32,000 — a single non-manufacturer, non-EU data point, not a verified current or EU price. |
| Ongoing cost | Diesel fuel, tires, spray consumables (nozzles, pump wear parts) and scheduled maintenance through the GUSS Automation / John Deere dealer network; costs not published | Not disclosed — no published consumable/battery-replacement costs found |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Herbicide application — spot-spray vs blanket application Multiple onboard weed-detection sensors trigger targeted spot-spray only where weeds are actually present · vendor | — No verified outcome |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found; confirmed commercial deployment is US and Australia only | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found on manufacturer or dealer materials |
| Machinery Regulation | Not applicable — no evidence Herbicide GUSS has been placed on the EU market | Not confirmed; would fall under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 autonomous-machine provisions if placed on the EU market |
| CAP subsidy | Not applicable — no EU/CAP-linked deployment found | Not directly tied to CAP eco-schemes; precision spraying could support national input-reduction eco-scheme measures where available |
"—" 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.