Ekobot (Acquired by Homburg)

Based in Sweden, Ekobot is developing autonomous electric weeding robots of the same name that use AI and camera sensors to detect and mechanically remove weeds. The robots also have soil probes and multispectral cameras mounted on them. These capture weeding data, which is processed and analyzed using cloud services to provide valuable insights to farmers. The company claims that its robots help farmers to reduce herbicide usage and save costs by up to 30% compared to manual labor. It also claims that its weeding mechanism has reduced soil disturbance, leading to improved soil health and yields.

Based on field trials in the Netherlands during May to June 2022 on a 2.5-hectare onion field, the robot could perform up to 1,000 strikes per hour, removing 97% of the weeds with up to 99.5% accuracy. The robots could operate only a day on a full charge.In November 2023, Ekobot has secured a patent for its tool system and previously a patent for its method making the patents cover both the mechanical tool system for weed control and the algorithms and system that control this weed tool. In December 2023, The company unveiled its WEAI robot, to tackle weeding. WEAI robot is a four-wheeled ~1300 pound robot equipped with metal fingers that autonomously recognizes and plucks weeds from the ground.

In June 2024, Ekobot was fully acquired by Homburg, a Dutch company that provides precision farming technology and agricultural equipment, for an unspecified amount.

Key customers and partnerships

In February 2024, Ekobot has partnered with AutoAgri, a Norwegian manufacturer of autonomous electric implement carriers, to adapt the Ekobot intelligent weeding tool to the AutoAgri autonomous implement carrier. During the same time period, The company has also partnered with Homburg Belgium for exclusive distribution rights of its WEAI robotic systems for mechanical weed control in Belgium. In January 2024, The company has partnered with Väderstad AB, a farm machinery and equipment manufacturer, to develop a real-time system to assess the performance of a seed drill using vision technology and AI. Ekobot has also appointed Homburg Holland, a manufacturer of agricultural equipment, as the importer of Ekobot for the Netherlands during the same time period. Previously in May 2023, Ekobot has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with AllagBots Nordic, a distributor of agriculture field robots in the Nordic region, for the sale of Ekobot's robots in Denmark and Norway.

In August 2021, the company partnered with Telia, a Swedish multinational telecommunications and mobile network company, Research Institutes of Sweden, and Axis Communications, a Swedish manufacturer of network cameras and audio devices, to carry out a pilot project to test communications between the robot and mobile networks using 5G technology. The project involved connecting, monitoring, and controlling the robot over a 5G network, due to the large amounts of data generated by the robot’s weeding operation.

As of November 2022, the company had plans to carry out pilot demonstrations for its robots in Sweden and the Netherlands.