
From geek toy to game-changer in less than a decade, artificial intelligence (AI) is ditching its ivory tower offices for farmers’ fields. And Canadian vegetable growers are seeing green, thanks to reduced crop protection and labour input costs.
The Ecorobotix sprayer, developed in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland by engineer Steve Tanner and business partner Aurélien Demaurex, is a prime example. From the start in 2011, their concept was to meet European environmental and sustainability standards while also delivering spraying efficiency for farmers around the globe. Their undertaking was comparable in scope to John Deere’s development in the U.S. of See and Spray technology for corn, soybeans and cotton.
To attain acceptable performance through emerging “see and act” technology, the Swiss team developed dependable large-language-format algorithms. Volumes of accurately labelled images covering a diverse cross-section of growing environments were needed to model their AI algorithms. This time-consuming process continues today as evidenced by the spring 2025 release of their operational algorithm for carrots.
The value of such painstaking diligence was not lost on Gwillimdale Farms. They purchased the $235,000 USD sprayer for 2,000 acres of carrots, onions, potatoes, parsnips and beets grown near Bradford and New Liskeard, Ontario. In their experience, emerging farm technology is often identified by attending agricultural events such as Agritechnica in Hanover, Germany.
Signalling post-purchase satisfaction, Gwillimdale’s business operations manager Alexa Hambly-Galbraith states, “The machine has performed well in its first season. We completed three passes on onion transplants, two passes on seed onions and carrots and one pass on beets.”
“It represents a significant step forward in smart farming in reducing chemical usage, improving cost efficiency and minimizing environmental impact, all while increasing operational precision.”
How it works
Five years into development, the company concluded that user resistance to autonomous sprayers was an obstacle due to both regulatory barriers and lack of trust. Working closely with growers, the team pivoted to a traditional tractor-sprayer model that harnessed the power of AI learning to develop algorithms for plant identification.
And today? In less than 250 milliseconds, the sprayer “scans” the field, captures real-time imagery, identifies the designated crops and/or weeds, and executes a precise spray of 2.4 by 2.4 inches, all while minimizing drift. The sprayer spots plants as small as 0.08 inches and as lanky as 15.7 inches, currently recognizing more than 50 weed species.
The sprayer can be pulled at speeds of up to 7.2 km/hour, has 156 high-precision spray nozzles spaced at 1.5 inches apart and carries a 600L water tank and a 300L mixture tank.
“The Ecorobotix has flexibility in its applications,” explains Olivia Soares De Camargo, business development project manager from the company’s Swiss headquarters. “It can spray fertilizer on only the crop or it can spray pre-and post-emergent herbicides on everything except the crop. It also has capability to spray volunteer potatoes, a potential reservoir for late blight inoculum.”
First introduced to North America in 2023 at the Farm Tech Days in Wisconsin, and subsequently at an ag robotics/autonomous solutions trade show in Salinas, California, the AI-enhanced sprayer has had quick uptake. The company decided on Pasco, Washington for its North American headquarters, placing it in the heart of 20.000 acres of onions. Interestingly, for its operations north of the border, the company formed a Canadian partnership with Napierville, Québec-based Univerco.
Starting with two Québec vegetable growers in 2023, Univerco today supports dozens of machines with the addition of field support in Newmarket, Ontario. Almost all service can be done remotely via the internet directly from the farm. In rare cases of complex failure, a data log file dump from memory is forwarded to engineers in Switzerland for debugging.
What is the ROI?
Chrissy Wozniak, U.S. marketing and communications manager for Ecorobotix, oversees the North American rollout from her base in Florida. Having extensive agricultural experience, she takes a broader view on the adoption of AI beyond the obvious reduction of crop protection inputs.
“This equipment also offers labour savings in that it eliminates hand-weeding crews,” she explains. “How much better is it to take a hand weeder and train that person for the tractor cab. Or reduce the labour required for thinning lettuce.”
Currently, the machine’s primary usage focuses on targeted herbicide treatments in vegetable fields to reduce phytotoxicity and enhance overall crop yields. Beyond herbicides, its features extend to the application of liquid fertilizers, growth treatments, insecticides and fungicides. This versatility supports units that are sold for broccoli, cabbage, sweet corn, carrots, cauliflower, leeks, lettuce and spinach.
Under-30 farmers are enthusiastic about the rapid trajectory of labour-saving equipment. Third-generation carrot and onion grower Brandon Scholten, Korag Farms, in Ontario’s Holland Marsh, acknowledges that rising input costs, especially labour, are making AI-enhanced equipment ever more attractive.
“I’m still researching the pros and cons of this sprayer,” says Scholten who manages 140 acres. “It might be feasible if we split it with a neighbouring farm.”
Though the benefits of using AI-targeted crop protection are clear, the sprayer reduces but does not eliminate hand-weeding. As Hambly-Galbraith explains, “Even in cases where weeds were too mature to be fully eliminated, the sprayer was able to suppress their growth, buying us valuable time before manual intervention was needed.”
Looking ahead to 2026, the Gwillimdale team is anticipating that after just two full seasons, the investment will have paid for itself through directly attributable cost savings.
“It’s been a valuable learning experience and while not perfect, the machine is operating effectively,” says Hambly-Galbraith. “For next season, we plan to spray earlier and adjust the safety zones to optimize performance. Our vegetables are grown on mineral soils as well as muck soils, which continues to influence our approach and results. The machine has operated and performed well in both soil types.”
The Ecorobotix story runs contrary to today’s media headlines warning that jobs will continue to be lost to artificial intelligence. On the farm, it seems jobs are not being lost – they are being upgraded. AI is taking “manual” out of manual labour. In the case of Gwillimdale Farms, improving their return on labour is driving them to explore other AI options. From weeding to grading to packing, for AI, it’s just logical.