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World desk6 min

Agritechnica 2015: Driverless Greenbot Makes Its Debut—What Happened Next?

Dutch Power Company’s Greenbot was an early autonomous agricultural machine shown at Agritechnica 2015. Here are its reported capabilities, limits, price and what happened afterward.
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Greenbot debuted at Agritechnica in November 2015 as an early commercially oriented autonomous implement carrier from Dutch Power Company. It was designed to repeat mowing, spraying and other routine work without a driver continuously seated at the controls. The launch was a significant step in agricultural robotics, but it was not a modern 2026 product launch: current Greenbot inventory, pricing and unchanged availability have not been verified.

Successful Farming’s contemporaneous report identified Probotiq as the software and electronics supplier, Conver as the manufacturer and Precision Makers as the distribution and service company. The 2015 report described Greenbot as a “first driverless machine,” but that wording reflects period company and trade-press positioning, not proof that it was literally the first autonomous agricultural machine ever built.

What Greenbot actually was

Greenbot was an unmanned machine and implement carrier, rather than simply a conventional tractor with a driver-assistance feature. An operator prepared the route, configured the implement and monitored alerts; Greenbot then carried out the programmed work autonomously. The final production model shown at Agritechnica followed an earlier concept displayed at Agrotechniek Holland in 2014. Dutch trade coverage reported that the Agritechnica machine was ready for market presentation.

The intended applications included orchard spraying, mowing, seeding, fertilizing and light tillage. Dutch Power Company had moved from autonomous golf-course mowing toward agriculture because repetitive routes could be automated, particularly in orchards and specialty-crop settings. That was a proposed labor-saving benefit, not an independently measured cost reduction.

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How Greenbot navigated and worked

Teach-and-playback routes

In the primary operating mode, an operator drove the route once and recorded the movement and, where configured, implement-control actions. Greenbot could then repeat that sequence. The system reproduced the recorded plan; it did not make a previously unsuitable route safe simply because it had been recorded.

Perimeter mapping and path planning

For less repetitive areas, the operator could drive around a field or grassed area’s perimeter. Greenbot would use that boundary to plan and fill in the working pattern.

Remote start and monitoring

After a route or task had been stored, the program could be started with a remote control. The operator still received status and fault messages and remained responsible for the worksite.

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RTK requirements and signal recovery

Greenbot used RTK-corrected GPS. Precision Makers said RTK initialization required at least five satellites; after initialization, operation could continue with four. If the correction signal was lost, the machine stopped. If it was not restored within five minutes, the user received a text message. Once the signal returned, the machine could resume from where it had stopped. These are 2015 product claims, not a universal behavior for current autonomous machines. See the original operating description.

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Reported 2015 specifications

The figures below belong to the Agritechnica-era Greenbot reporting. They should not be treated as specifications for every later machine carrying a Greenbot or Dutch Power Company name.

Item Reported detail
Models CR12 and CR18
Engine 3.4-liter Perkins diesel
Power 100 hp
Fuel capacity 85 liters of diesel
Front hitch Category I, lifting up to 750 kg
Rear hitch Category II, maximum capacity 1,500 kg
Emissions equipment SCR technology
Track versions About 1 meter for the narrow version and 1.8 meters for the wider version, according to Dutch reporting
Ground clearance About 35 cm
Launch price From €120,000; the Dutch report said this excluded VAT and delivery

Sources for the engine, hitches, navigation and price include Successful Farming and Nieuwe Oogst. Another trade report said the wider machine cost approximately €7,000 more than the narrow-track version. Mechaman also reported the hitch and safety arrangements. The €120,000 figure was a 2015 starting price, not a 2026 quotation or an all-in ownership cost; implements, RTK infrastructure, installation, training, maintenance and service could add cost.

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Safety systems—and their limits

Greenbot’s collision protection combined several layers:

  • Radar that reduced speed when it detected an obstacle.
  • Ultrasonic sensors that commanded an immediate stop when an object was detected.
  • A physical bumper mechanism for close-range contact detection.
  • Text alerts, including notifications about faults, engine overheating and task completion.

A separate 2015 report described radar detection to approximately 15 meters and bumper sensing within about 1 meter. It also said the implement’s safety system had to be connected before Greenbot could operate that implement. Those distances were period claims, not a guarantee that every obstacle would be detected or correctly classified.

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Obstacle sensors did not remove the need for site preparation and supervision. People, animals, moved fences, wet ground, crop growth and temporary equipment could make a recorded route unsafe. Modern Agritechnica guidance continues to identify virtual boundaries, emergency stops, sensor fusion, legal responsibility and human oversight as unresolved or evolving parts of autonomous operation. Agritechnica’s autonomous-systems overview makes that distinction clear.

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X-pert: automating an existing tractor

Precision Makers also offered X-pert conversion kits intended to make selected tractors and mowers autonomous. The launch coverage specifically mentioned Fendt tractors; later reporting said installations also involved John Deere machines and self-propelled mowers. The retrofit approach could reduce the need to buy a dedicated carrier, but it tied the autonomy system to the base machine’s electronic architecture and software.

That integration risk became visible later. In 2018, Precision Makers reportedly stopped selling X-pert kits because tractor-manufacturer software and electronics changes required repeated adaptations and could leave machines idle during updates. The 2018 report said Greenbot development and support continued at that time. The lesson is broader than Greenbot: retrofit autonomy can lower initial capital cost while increasing firmware, compatibility, dealer and service risk.

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What evidence existed at launch?

According to the company representative quoted in the 2015 report, two agricultural prototypes had been built and tested, five additional machines had been built, and one had already been sold in the Netherlands for mowing. The company also said about 40 related autonomous mowing machines were operating in the Netherlands from its earlier golf-course work. These were company statements, not independently audited deployment totals. Successful Farming recorded the figures.

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What happened after the debut?

The later history does not support describing Greenbot as a mass-market autonomous tractor. Precision Makers ended X-pert conversion-kit sales in 2018 while retaining Greenbot in its program, and subsequent coverage described changes in emphasis among Greenbot and related Dutch Power Company products. Later trade reporting treated the CR18 and related machines as part of an evolving product strategy rather than one unchanged model.

In 2025, Vantage Agrometius announced that it would take over Precision Makers’ sales and service activities. That announcement identifies a service and distribution transition; it does not establish current Greenbot inventory, a U.S. sales channel or an available replacement for the 2015 machine. Read the distributor announcement.

Where a Greenbot-style system made sense

  • Predictable, repetitive routes in orchards, golf courses, verges, ditches and other controlled environments.
  • Operations with dependable RTK correction and access to trained local technicians.
  • Tasks where reducing continuous seat time mattered more than maximum tractor throughput.
  • Work that could be programmed once and repeated many times.

Where it was a poor fit

  • Irregular fields requiring frequent judgment or changing paths.
  • Sites with people, livestock, traffic or unexpected obstacles.
  • Public roads and spaces with uncertain rules or liability.
  • Large, high-throughput implements or farms without reliable RTK coverage.
  • Businesses unable to justify a six-figure machine against realistic utilization and labor savings.

Greenbot compared with current autonomous machinery

Greenbot’s core idea—precise repeatability, implement integration and remote supervision—has persisted, but current concepts add more sensing and computing. Agritechnica’s recent coverage discusses combinations of GPS, cameras, lidar, radar, artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual fences, while emphasizing approval, robustness, economics and legal responsibility. Its semi-autonomous systems coverage describes the continuing role of human oversight.

Fendt’s Xaver GT, shown at Agritechnica 2025, illustrates the direction of travel. Fendt describes it as a concept study with a serial-hybrid drive, diesel engine and 9-kWh battery, four individually steerable electric wheels, camera and lidar systems, AI-based row recognition, tactile and proactive safety monitoring, a 2-ton inter-axle power lift, adjustable 1.5-to-2.25-meter track width and 50 cm of ground clearance. Fendt’s specification page does not present it as a conventional retail machine with a public price.

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Against that backdrop, Greenbot is best understood as an early commercial autonomy milestone, not as a machine with every capability associated with today’s purpose-built robots.

Bottom line

Greenbot mattered because it presented autonomous agricultural work as a deployable commercial system: an implement carrier that could learn routes, operate with RTK positioning and stop or alert when its safety layers detected trouble. Its subsequent history also exposed the hard part of agricultural autonomy. Reliable positioning, changing worksites, machine integration, software support, service coverage, liability and economics matter as much as driving without someone onboard.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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