Automation and robotics are changing the face of agriculture at an alarming pace. The advantages of agriculture automation are apparent: prices are reduced for consumers, the environmental footprint of farming is significantly reduced, and efficiently reduces labor costs across the board. From self-driving tractors to weeding robots and controlled environment agriculture, agriculture automation companies are kickstarting the farming industry to a fully modern environment.

There are huge disruptions happening within the Agtech space. With trends like consumers being in charge and climate change happening more often, it's impacting the way we can form sustainable food systems. Watch Adam Bergman, Managing Director, Clean Energy Transition Group and Global Head of AgTech Investment Banking of Citi give insights on the future of the Agtech space. Learn more about our program.

These 10 agriculture automation companies are making huge strides in advancing the future of farming.

1. Abundant Robotics

Abundant Robotics delivers robotic systems for the hardest jobs in agriculture. As robotics researchers, we’ve broken new ground in a variety of domains.  For the past two years we’ve focused on hard problems in agriculture and are spinning-out of SRI International to build products based on our successful research. Our customers are grappling with urgent problems and are incredibly enthusiastic about the solution we’ve demonstrated.    

2. Agrobot

Agrobot is a company engaged in the business of agricultural robots. Working along with global leading farmers, the Agrobot has successfully developed the first robot for gently harvest strawberries, no matter where and how they are grown.

From a flexible mobile platform, up to 24 robotics manipulators work together to pick contact-less just the fruit which meet the farmer’s quality standard. Thanks to this smart and innovative approach, Agrobot has managed to align traditional farming culture and cutting-edge technology to face the most pressing needs of the strawberry industry, such as the scarcity of labor force.

3. American Robotics

American Robotics, formerly based at MassRobotics and now headquartered in Marlborough, is developing fully-autonomous Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) solutions for rugged, real-world environments. Through innovations in robotics and AI, the company has developed an autonomous drone, base station, and analytics platform that is focused first on agriculture and provides insights to growers and researchers at resolutions, frequencies and speeds never before possible. This unique & proprietary fully-automated "drone-in-a-box", named Scout™, currently stands alone as the sole practical drone system for ag in the world, and serves to unlock the projected $100B TAM. Other applicable markets include oil & gas, security, mining, utilities, and military / homeland defense.

4. Bear Flag Robotics

Bear Flag Robotics is developing a tractor automation kit that will enable farmers to affordably retrofit their existing tractors with cutting edge driverless technology and implement control.

5. Blue River Technologies

Blue River Technology employs computer vision and robotics technologies to build intelligent solutions for the agricultural industries. Their See & Spray technology precisely sprays herbicides only where needed and with exactly what’s needed, enabling a world in which every plant counts. This technology gives farmers a new way to control and prevent herbicide-resistant weeds, while also eliminating 90% of the herbicide volumes that growers spray today.

6. ecoRobotix

ecoRobotix develops, produces and sells innovative farming machines that require low energy and that reduce the negative ecological impact of modern agriculture, while keeping costs competitive. Their weeding robot is the first ever completely autonomous machine for a more ecologoical and economical weeding of row crops, meadows, and intercropping cultures.

7. Rabbit Tractors

Rabbit Tractors’ autonomous tractor delivers value to the row crop farmers not just through a reduction in labor costs, but through increased efficiency both within the field and across the operations and increased yield.

8. Rowbot

Rowbot is redefining what’s possible for farmers by using robotics. Rowbot’s first machine is a small, self-driving, multi-use platform that travels between rows of corn, removing height constraints imposed by a rapidly growing crop. Rowbots work in teams to apply nitrogen fertilizer in sync with corn needs, and seed cover crops into tall corn. Their machines serve as a great platform to collect valuable data, to inform both current and future work.

9. Small Robot Company

Small Robot Company is building robots that will seed and care for each individual plant in your crop. They will only feed and spray the plants that need it, giving them the perfect levels nutrients and support, with no waste. This level of detail allows you to be kinder to soil, kinder to the environment, more efficient, more precise, and more productive. An increased yield, as well as minimal chemical usage. So you can increase revenues by up to 40% while reducing costs by up to 60%.

10. Soft Robotics

Soft Robotics opens new markets to automation through the application and commercialization of its proprietary soft robotics technology. They design and build the Soft Robotics System: soft robotic grippers, a control system and software that can manipulate items of varying size, shape and weight with a single device. These end of arm tooling solutions enable industrial applications that previously were off limits to automation.

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