Herbicide GUSS vs YV01 autonomous vineyard sprayer
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.Crawler-tracked autonomous spraying robot for steep, narrow vineyards — inverted-U frame straddles vines up to 1.4 m, 200 L electrostatic spray tank, 45% slope capability. Developed by Yanmar, on sale in France since 2023 through dedicated subsidiary Yanmar Vineyard Solutions (Champagne region focus, Moët & Chandon partnership); a weeder attachment was added in 2024.
Best for: Steep Champagne-style narrow vineyards that want to take the operator out of plant-protection spraying — no driver exposure to chemicals, slopes to 45%.| Herbicide GUSS Verified 2026-07-19 | YV01 autonomous vineyard sprayer Verified 2026-07-16 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Spraying | Spraying |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | United States | Japan |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | Pending | CE-marked |
| Lead time | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-19 | 2026-07-16 |
| 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. | Petrol — Honda iGX800 2-cyl air-cooled engine (~25–27 hp), 19 L tank |
| Required tractor power | Not applicable — self-propelled 4WD/4-wheel-steer platform, not a tractor implement | Is the vehicle (twin-crawler autonomous chassis) |
| 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) | Inverted-U straddle frame for vines up to 1.4 m height |
| 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.) | ~1 t |
| 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 | Autonomous spraying along pre-mapped vineyard paths; 200 L spray tank |
| Max speed | Not disclosed | 4 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 | GNSS RTK positioning with Ntrip correction · pre-mapped field and path definition via web system · counter-rotating crawlers for tight headland turns |
| 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. | Sold and serviced by Yanmar Vineyard Solutions SAS, a dedicated Yanmar Group company in France |
| 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 | Petrol; spray consumables; service via Yanmar Vineyard Solutions |
| 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 | Operator exposure during spraying Driverless spraying — worker removed from dangerous field work · vendor |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found; confirmed commercial deployment is US and Australia only | Sold as a series product in France — CE conformity expected; not independently verified |
| Machinery Regulation | Not applicable — no evidence Herbicide GUSS has been placed on the EU market | Marketed in the EU via Yanmar Vineyard Solutions SAS (France); conformity documentation not published |
| CAP subsidy | Not applicable — no EU/CAP-linked deployment found | Electrostatic targeted spraying supports pesticide-efficiency goals; petrol drive offers no emissions benefit |
"—" 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.