Iván Hernández Dalas: John Deere strengthens agrobotics portfolio with GUSS acquisition

A GUSS sprayer in the field.

High-value crop growers are currently facing challenges around labor availability, input costs, and crop protection. | Source: John Deere

John Deere has acquired GUSS Automation, a developer of crop autonomy based in Kingsburg, Calif. Financial details of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. The companies established a joint venture in 2022 and are now taking that commitment a step further. 

John Deere is an exclusive provider of GUSS sprayers, and that will continue to be the case after the acquisition. The business will retain its name, brand, employees, and manufacturing facility in Kingsburg. This facility will expand John Deere’s U.S. manufacturing footprint to the heart of the country’s high-value crop production market. High-value crops, such as orchards and vineyards, generate significantly higher value per acre than grains or oilseeds. 

“Fully integrating GUSS into the John Deere portfolio is a continuation of our dedication to serving high-value crop customers with advanced, scalable technologies to help them do more with less,” said Julien Le Vely, the director of production systems for high value & small acre crops at John Deere. “GUSS brings a proven solution to a fast-growing segment of agriculture, and its team has a deep understanding of customer needs in orchards and vineyards. We’re excited to have them fully part of the John Deere team.”

John Deere said it will support GUSS in expanding its global reach and accelerating innovation, including continued integration with other John Deere precision agriculture technologies, such as Smart Apply. GUSS sprayers will continue to use John Deere Power Systems engines, first integrated in 2024.

GUSS Automation brings 2.6 million acres of experience

Founded by Dave Crinklaw in 2018, GUSS manufactures autonomous sprayers that can be remotely supervised. A single operator can manage up to eight machines at once. Using GPS, lidar, and proprietary software, the company said its machines navigate vineyards and orchards with precision to help reduce operator error, labor costs, and material waste.

To date, more than 250 GUSS machines have been deployed globally. These machines account for 2.6 million acres sprayed over 500,000 autonomous hours, the company claimed. 

“Joining John Deere enables us to tap into their unmatched innovative capabilities in precision agriculture technologies to bring our solutions to more growers around the world,” said Gary Thompson, chief operations officer at GUSS. “Our team is passionate about helping high-value crop growers increase their efficiency and productivity in their operations, and together with John Deere, we will have the ability to have an even greater impact.”

John Deere continues to invest in autonomy for agriculture

This is the latest in a number of robotics companies John Deere has acquired over the years. It acquired Blue River Technology in 2017 for $305 million, Bear Flag Robotics in 2021 for $250 million, and SparkAI in 2023 for an undisclosed amount. Blue River and Bear Flag helped John Deere expand its autonomy capabilities, while SparkAI enhanced human-in-the-loop capabilities.

Earlier this year, at CES 2025, John Deere added full autonomy to the 9 Series tractors. These are the largest and most powerful tractors in the John Deere portfolio. The company asserted that this move demonstrates its commitment to delivering autonomy across its entire product range. John Deere announced the autonomous 8 Series tractor at CES 2022, and it said it has now completed integration of full autonomy for the top of its tractor line.

The company also released a fully autonomous sprayer for orchards, announced pilot testing of an autonomous articulating dump truck (ADT) for mining operations, and launched an all-electric, fully autonomous commercial mower that will be released later this year.

Learn about the latest advances in agricultural robotics at RoboBusiness

This year’s RoboBusiness, which will be on Oct. 15 and 16 in Santa Clara, Calif., will feature a Field Robotics track. Talks in this track will all focus on the various ways robots are being deployed outdoors, whether it be in agriculture, construction, or more.

This year’s Field Robotics track will feature talks from MassRobotics, e-con Systems, ABB Robotics, Autonomous Solutions Inc., Polymath Robotics, SKA Robotics, and ForceN.

RoboBusiness is the premier event for developers and suppliers of commercial robots. The event is produced by WTWH Media, which also produces The Robot Report, Automated Warehouse, and the Robotics Summit & Expo.

This year’s conference will include more than 60 speakers, a startup workshop, the annual Pitchfire competition, and numerous networking opportunities. Over 100 exhibitors on the show floor will showcase their latest enabling technologies, products, and services to help solve your robotics development challenges.

Registration is now open for RoboBusiness 2025.

The post John Deere strengthens agrobotics portfolio with GUSS acquisition appeared first on The Robot Report.



View Source

Popular posts from this blog

[Ivan Hernandez Dalas] Mechatronics in Ghost in the Shell

Image
Adam Savage Behind the Scenes of Ghost in the Shell The acclaimed Ghost in the Shell portrayed serious advancements in technology and mechatronics, 20 years later we'll have a live action movie bringing all those elements to life. The acclaimed Ghost in the Shell (1995 Production: I.G, Bandai Visual, Kodansha and Manga Entertainment) portrayed serious advancements in technology and mechatronics, 20 years later we'll have a live action movie bringing all those elements to life. Animatronics, 3D printing, Castings, engineering, and art  will bring together this state of the art cyborgs  in a movie we can’t miss.  Tested´s Adam Savage  shows us -in a visit to Weta Workshops- how their team put together the  amazing and visually stunning  cyborgs for the movie. Adam Savage Behind the Scenes of Ghost in the Shell! Of course, let´s watch the trailer: "They created me, but they cannot control me." GHOST IN THE SHELL star...
Read more

Iván Hernández Dalas: How a WWII-era Plan may Provide a Robotics, AI Blueprint for Manufacturing in the Heartland

Image
Most experts agree that revitalizing manufacturing in the U.S. will require some combination of automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics, but the blueprint to achieve this for many smaller and midsize manufacturers remains elusive. Next week, industry leaders and officials from federal, state, and local government will gather in York, Pa., to discuss the impacts of AI, robotics, and technologies that will transform tomorrow’s workforce, especially in traditional “heartland” cities and towns. The Blueprint York event , produced by VentureBeat, will take place March 26-28, at The Strand Theater in York, a south-central Pennsylvania city that’s about 100 miles west of Philadelphia, and 26 miles south of the state’s capital, Harrisburg. The Blueprint events were started by VentureBeat following the 2016 election to help discover areas of technology and economic development beyond the East and West coasts of the U.S. The first event was held in Reno, Nev., in 2018, with this year...
Read more

Iván Hernández Dalas: The Forklift Ballet: How DARPA Trucked Its Massive Radio-Frequency Testbed Across the United States

Image
When it comes to relocating a data center, Joel Gabel is an expert. But when the U.S.  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) selected the company he works for, Pivot Technology Services , to help them with a project, he says that it more or less went against all the best practices. That’s because the project was relocating Colosseum . At first glance, Colosseum may look like a data center, but in reality, it’s a massive radio-frequency emulation testbed that DARPA built for its Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2). SC2 has been a three-year competition to demonstrate the validity of using artificial intelligences to work together in order to use wireless spectrum more efficiently than operating on pre-allocated bands would be. Colosseum was originally built and housed at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory . That changed at the beginning of October, when the testbed was dismantled and later trucked to Los Angeles for the competition’s finale, sche...
Read more