Spraying · head to head
Mini GUSS vs SharpShooter
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 (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.Verdant Robotics, Inc. · United States
US-built AI-guided precision-application implement (Verdant Robotics calls it "SharpShooter" — not "Spraybox"; see maker note below) that identifies each plant with 3D machine vision and fires a targeted micro-dose of herbicide, fertiliser or biological product rather than blanket-spraying the field. Tractor-drawn via a standard 3-point hitch; commercially available with expanded nationwide US availability announced May 2025; no EU sales or CE evidence found.
Best for: Large US specialty-crop operations (leafy greens, root vegetables, tree fruit) running a tractor that can supply ~6.5 GPM hydraulic flow and lift ~3,000 lb, that want to cut blanket-spray chemical volume and hand-weeding labour and are comfortable with a quote-based purchase-plus-financing deal rather than a published price.| Mini GUSS Verified 2026-07-19 | SharpShooter Verified 2026-07-19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Spraying | Spraying |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | AI-assisted |
| Country of origin | United States | United States |
| 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 — 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) | Tractor-hydraulic implement — no PTO required, needs approximately 6.5 GPM hydraulic flow from the towing tractor |
| Required tractor power | Not applicable — self-propelled 4WD/4-wheel-steer platform, not a tractor implement | Any tractor able to lift approximately 3,000 lb via a Class I/II 3-point hitch and supply ~6.5 GPM hydraulic flow — no minimum engine power or PTO published |
| Dimensions | 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) | 20-ft working-width configuration (Model B); folds to a compact travel position for towing on a standard gooseneck trailer |
| Weight | 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 | Not disclosed |
| Min farm size | Not disclosed as a number; GUSS markets the Mini GUSS at commercial vineyard/orchard/berry scale, not hobby-farm scale | No published minimum; named commercial deployments (e.g. My-T Acres, NY; TopFlavor Farms) are large multi-thousand-acre specialty-crop operations |
| Productivity | 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) | Up to 7 acres/hour (2.8 ha/hr) field coverage; up to approximately 500,000 plants/hour at 120–480 targeting shots/second |
| Max speed | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Sensors | GPS, LiDAR and onboard vehicle sensors for autonomous row navigation and obstacle avoidance (agtecher.com; consistent with the GUSS family's published navigation stack) | AI-powered 3D field mapping and machine vision ("Aim & Apply") for real-time crop/weed identification and millimetre-level targeting; multiple application turrets; tablet-based operator interface with live visual confirmation of detection and targeting |
| Price & model | ||
| Price (EUR) | ≈€261,000 (converted from the agtecher.com USD listing; not independently confirmed by the manufacturer) | Not disclosed |
| Native price | $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) | Not disclosed |
| Business model | 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). | Purchase, with financing available through Verdant Robotics or its finance partners; price varies by configuration, crop, region and dealer — contact sales for a quote (verdantrobotics.com/faqs, 2026). Sold direct and through regional authorised dealers (e.g. Ag Technologies for the US Southeast). Note a conflict across sources — Future Farming's coverage described Verdant's offering as Robotics-as-a-Service, but the company's current 2026 FAQ describes a purchase-plus-financing model with no RaaS mentioned, so RaaS is not reflected here as the current model. |
| Ongoing cost | 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. | Consumable spray solution/inputs; routine cleaning of spray boxes, filter checks and nozzle inspection (verdantrobotics.com/faqs) |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Chemical and water use with the Smart Apply option up to 50% chemical and water savings on average (vendor figure) · vendor | Chemical volume vs. blanket spraying Up to 99% less chemical volume applied · vendor |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found on gussag.com; the manufacturer's own dealer locator lists only US and Australia coverage | Not confirmed — no CE-marking evidence found; the product is US-designed and -built and, as of 2026, sold only in the US market |
| Machinery Regulation | Not applicable — no evidence Mini GUSS has been placed on the EU market | No EU placement found; would fall under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 autonomous-machine provisions if ever placed on the EU market |
| CAP subsidy | 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 | Not applicable — US-only sales, outside EU CAP scope |
"—" 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.