Autonomous Agriculture Fleets

drones · tractors · weeders · harvest

Farm autonomy is real and widespread, but not where most people look. The most common autonomous farm machine is a Chinese battery-electric spray drone, not a driverless tractor.

Where farm autonomy runs today: spray drones from DJI and XAG, with more than 600,000 DJI agricultural drones in use, powered by swapped batteries; tractor retrofit kits from John Deere, ASI and Sabanto, including five tractors covering 255,000 acres for US Sugar, diesel; GUSS driverless orchard sprayers owned by Deere, diesel; laser and spot weeding from Carbon Robotics and See and Spray, commercial; Monarch MK-V driver-optional electric tractors; and robotic harvest from Tevel, Agrobot and FFRobotics at pilot stage. WHERE FARM AUTONOMY RUNS TODAY Spray drones DJI, XAG 600,000+ DJI in usebattery swap Tractor retrofit kits Deere, ASI, Sabanto US Sugar: 255,000 acresdiesel Orchard sprayers GUSS (Deere) driverless in orchardsdiesel Laser and spot weeding Carbon Robotics, See and Spray commercialtowed or self-driving Electric tractors Monarch MK-V driver-optionalbattery-electric Robotic harvest Tevel, Agrobot, FFRobotics pilotselectric China Western, commercial Early commercial Pilot
DJI ag drones
600,000+
Deere kits
Gen 2 perception
US Sugar acres
255,000
Tractor powertrain
Mostly diesel
Hub
Fleets

Finding

The most widely deployed autonomous farm machine is the battery-electric spray drone, and China builds most of them

DJI reported more than 600,000 of its agricultural drones in use worldwide at the end of 2025. They fly preprogrammed spray and spreading missions with obstacle-avoidance radar, and a crew of one or two swaps batteries from a field charger or generator between flights. XAG, also from Shenzhen, is the second major maker; US and Brazilian adoption has grown quickly since rules for heavier spray drones were eased.

Driverless tractors are further behind. John Deere's autonomous 8R went on sale in 2022, and its second-generation perception kit with 16 cameras, shown at CES 2025, extends autonomy to 9RX tillage tractors, the 5ML orchard tractor and retrofits of older machines. Deere has bought into every layer: Blue River for See and Spray, Bear Flag Robotics for retrofit autonomy and GUSS for orchard sprayers. CNH's Raven, AGCO's PTx Trimble and Kubota in Japan offer competing systems, and China's Lovol and YTO sell autonomous tractors for state-backed unmanned farms. Retrofit kits are spreading fastest: Autonomous Solutions' kit runs five Deere tractors around the clock across 255,000 acres for US Sugar.

Large tractors stay diesel because tillage and harvest draw hundreds of kilowatts for long days far from grid power. Electric fits smaller machines that return to a barn or charger: Monarch's driver-optional MK-V for orchards and vineyards, and Carbon Robotics' LaserWeeder and harvest robots, which carry their own electric drives. See the Electric Farm Vehicle Directory.

Operators

Leading farm autonomy players

Status is an ElectronsX summary.

Farm autonomy players
CompanyMachinesPowertrainStatus
DJI AgricultureAgras spray and spreading dronesBattery-electric600,000+ drones in use (end-2025)
XAGSpray drones, R150 ground robotBattery-electricCommercial in China and abroad
John Deere8R and 9RX autonomy, 5ML orchard, See and Spray, GUSSDieselCommercial; Gen 2 kits for retrofit
CNH (Raven)Raven Autonomy, OMNiDRIVE grain-cart autonomyDieselCommercial in North America
AGCO (PTx Trimble)OutRun retrofit autonomy for grain carts and tillageDieselCommercial
Autonomous Solutions (ASI)Vehicle Automation KitDiesel host tractorsUS Sugar fleet, 255,000 acres
KubotaAgri Robo autonomous tractors and combinesDieselCommercial in Japan
Lovol and YTOAutonomous tractorsDieselUnmanned farm demonstrations in China
Monarch TractorMK-V driver-optional tractorBattery-electricSold to vineyards and orchards
Carbon RoboticsLaserWeeder, AutoTractorElectric implements; retrofit autonomyCommercial in vegetables

Segments

Farm autonomy by task

Farm autonomy segments
SegmentSizeReadinessConstraint
Spray drones20-100 kg payload classCommercial at scaleAviation rules, battery logistics
Autonomous tractors100-600+ hpEarly commercialCost, rural connectivity, implement compatibility
Targeted sprayers and weedersBoom sprayers, laser weedersCommercialPrice per acre
Robotic harvestersArms and flying pickersPilotsFruit handling, slower than crews
Swarm robotsSmall field robots (SwarmFarm)Early commercial in AustraliaFew commercial operators

Stack

Farm fleet stack

Farm autonomy stack
LayerTypical hardware or softwareRole
PositioningGNSS with RTK correctionCentimeter row guidance
SensorsStereo cameras, radar, lidar, multispectral imagersObstacle detection and crop health
ComputeNVIDIA Jetson Orin, OEM controllersWeed and obstacle recognition at field speed
ConnectivityRural LTE, satellite (Starlink)Remote supervision from a phone or tablet
Farm softwareJohn Deere Operations Center, CNH FieldOps, DJI SmartFarmTurn field plans into machine jobs
EnergyDiesel tractors; battery swap and field generators for dronesKeeps machines running through spray and harvest windows

Sources

Sources and scope

Scope
Autonomous Agriculture Fleets
Sources
DJI Agricultural Annual Report (April 2026); John Deere (CES 2025, February 2025); US Sugar and ASI via Pulse (May 2026); CNH, AGCO, Kubota, XAG, Monarch, Carbon Robotics company releases
Updated
October 2026