Self-Driving Agricultural Vehicle Designed for Vineyards, Orchards

Robotics Plus has launched an autonomous, multi-use agricultural vehicle designed for orchard and vineyard crop tasks.

The New Zealand-based company created the vehicle, dubbed Prospr, to meet ongoing challenges in the agricultural industry, including land scarcity, rising food demands and continued labor shortages.

Prospr is a hybrid vehicle designed to be low-emissions and is customizable to accommodate multiple swappable tools, including tower sprayers for grapes, apples, or tree crops. 

“The right tool for the job is attached to the vehicle depending on the day's work, and multiple Prosprs can collaborate in a fleet to get the job done,” the company said in a statement. “The autonomous vehicle uses a combination of perception systems to sense the environment, enabling data-driven insights.”

Prospr also comes with its own wireless network, keeping vehicles online and enabling software updates for new features. 

Robotics Plus debuted Prospr at the agricultural innovation conference, FIRA 2023, in California Sept 19-21.

“We’ve focussed on utilization and flexibility with a unique modular architecture, allowing different tools for various crop types and applications year-round to maximize return on investment,” said Steve Saunders, Robotics Plus’ CEO. “It’s great to be back at FIRA to launch Prospr, with the first vehicles rolling out to customers this month. It’s a fantastic milestone.”

Related:Customizable Agricultural Robot Can Tackle Labor Shortages

The company is also partnering with industry members to fine-tune its vehicles. One of these is with Yamaha Motor to “refine and productize” Prospr for scale, as well as one with Croplands, a sprayer technology innovator, to improve the robot’s spraying capabilities.