S1000 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.
Chinese tracked orchard sprayer from Jiangsu Lanjiang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (LJ Tech, Nanjing) — 1,000 L tank, diesel-electric hybrid drive, and a multi-sensor (RTK + LiDAR + millimetre-wave radar + machine vision) navigation stack with switchable remote-control or full-autonomous operation. Sold FOB China from China (from roughly US$60,000 on the manufacturer's own B2B storefront); no EU dealer, machine-specific CE declaration, or named European installation was found, despite manufacturer marketing content referencing Spanish, French, Italian, Polish and Austrian orchards.
Best for: Large orchard or vineyard operators able to import directly from China and self-manage logistics, customs, and any EU compliance paperwork themselves.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.| S1000 Verified 2026-07-19 | Mini GUSS Verified 2026-07-19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Spraying | Spraying |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | China | United States |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | Pending | Pending |
| Lead time | ~4 wk | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-19 | 2026-07-19 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Diesel-electric hybrid — 44 kW four-cylinder diesel engine + generator + 7.2 kWh lithium battery (extended-range design) | 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 — self-propelled tracked platform | Not applicable — self-propelled 4WD/4-wheel-steer platform, not a tractor implement |
| Dimensions | 4490 x 1720 x 1920 mm (L x W x H), tracked chassis (manufacturer listing gives a close variant of 4430 x 1730 x 2100 mm elsewhere — minor inter-listing discrepancy) | 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 | 2,500 kg (manufacturer B2B listing; may include export packaging) | 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 — marketed for large-scale orchard operations (high-density apple blocks, wide citrus rows) but no minimum-hectare figure published | Not disclosed as a number; GUSS markets the Mini GUSS at commercial vineyard/orchard/berry scale, not hobby-farm scale |
| Productivity | 850 L/ha spray application rate at 3 km/h working speed; ≥8 hours continuous operation per tank/charge | 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 | 0-5 km/h | Not disclosed |
| Sensors | 5D fusion navigation (RTK + LiDAR + millimetre-wave radar + machine vision + inertial sensing); 360° obstacle detection for people/animals/barriers; ±5 cm positioning accuracy (manufacturer listing) | 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 | US$60,000-90,000 (FOB China, manufacturer B2B storefront; MOQ 2 units) | $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 | Direct export sale via the manufacturer (Jiangsu Lanjiang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing, China) and its B2B storefronts; FOB pricing with a minimum order of 2 units and a roughly 30-day lead time. No EU-based dealer or sales entity was found. | 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 | Not disclosed — no published consumable or running-cost figures (diesel, battery replacement, nozzle wear) were found beyond the manufacturer's 1-year local spare-parts commitment. | 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 | — No verified outcome | 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 | Manufacturer's B2B trade listing (made-in-china.com storefront) states the company is "certified by 3C, CE, and ISO quality management system" — a general company-level claim, not a machine-specific CE declaration or document; not independently confirmed. | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found on gussag.com; the manufacturer's own dealer locator lists only US and Australia coverage |
| Machinery Regulation | No evidence of EU placing-on-market found; would fall under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 autonomous-machine provisions if the machine were sold into the EU. | Not applicable — no evidence Mini GUSS has been placed on the EU market |
| CAP subsidy | Not addressed — China-export machine with plant-protection application only; no CAP eco-scheme linkage found. | 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.