Ecorobotix ARA: How the Plant-by-Plant Sprayer Works

What Is The Ecorobotix ARA?

ARA is a towed, boom-mounted spot-sprayer built by Ecorobotix, a precision-agriculture company founded in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland in 2014 by Steve Tanner and Aurélien Demaurex. Instead of blanket-spraying a whole field, ARA uses high-resolution cameras and onboard AI to find individual plants and spray only the ones that need treatment.

The core technology is what Ecorobotix calls Plant-by-Plant, a detection system that scans the field, classifies each plant as crop or weed, and fires a precise spray dose at that single plant, all in under 250 milliseconds per detection cycle. Ecorobotix positions ARA as ultra-high-precision (UHP) spraying, a step beyond the broader see-and-spray category that treats a wider patch around each detected weed.

This page covers how ARA's detection and spraying pipeline works, its published specs, what independent reporting says about pricing, and where it fits against other precision-spraying systems.

How Plant-by-Plant Spraying Works

ARA runs an array of high-speed cameras across its boom that continuously image the ground as the machine moves. Onboard processors run a deep-learning model, trained over multiple growing seasons, that classifies what the camera sees as a specific crop, a specific weed species, or bare soil, in real time and at machine speed.

Once a target is classified, ARA fires an individual nozzle at just that plant, applying herbicide, fertilizer, or another crop-protection product to a spot roughly 2.4 by 2.4 inches. Because the system can be set to spray only weeds, only crops, or a mix depending on the treatment, growers can use the same machine for herbicide, spot fertilization, growth regulation, or insecticide application.

The result is that most of the field surface receives no chemical at all, which is the mechanism behind Ecorobotix's herbicide-reduction claims. That approach puts ARA in the same precision-spraying category as John Deere's See & Spray and other AI-guided sprayers, which we cover in our weed control robots guide.

• Cameras and AI classify each plant as crop, weed, or soil in real time.
• Detection-to-spray response is under 250 milliseconds per cycle.
• Spray dose targets a roughly 2.4 x 2.4 inch spot on the identified plant.
• Same platform can apply herbicide, fertilizer, growth treatments, or insecticide.

Ecorobotix ARA Specs And Models

Ecorobotix markets the current generation as the ARA 620 UHP Sprayer, a boom-mounted, towed implement sized for row-crop and specialty-crop operations. The company also sells Alba, a smaller robotic weeder aimed at high-value crops like sugar beet and vegetables, though ARA is the flagship product for broadacre precision spraying.

Ecorobotix reports ARA can detect weeds as small as roughly 4 by 4 millimeters, letting growers treat infestations earlier than a human sprayer operator typically would. The system is controlled from a supplied tablet, where the operator selects the crop, the target (crop or weed), and the treatment before the machine runs the field.

As with any manufacturer specification, these figures come from Ecorobotix's own published materials and press releases; treat them as the company's stated performance rather than independently verified benchmarks until third-party field trials confirm them.

Ecorobotix ARA Price

Ecorobotix has not published a fixed retail price for ARA, and cost varies by boom width, region, and whether the unit is purchased or offered through a dealer financing or subscription-style arrangement. Farm trade press covering ARA's US market entry has reported it as a premium capital purchase aimed at operations with significant acreage in high-value or herbicide-sensitive crops, where chemical savings offset the equipment cost over a few seasons.

If you are evaluating ARA, the practical path is to request a quote directly from Ecorobotix or a regional dealer for your boom width and crop mix, since publicly available editorial pricing is not exact or current enough to budget from.

Growers comparing capital cost across precision-ag equipment should also read our broader agricultural robots guide, which surveys where robotic weeding and spraying stands today.

Funding And Company Background

Ecorobotix has raised roughly $150 million across its funding history, most recently a $105 million Series D announced in 2025 led by Highland Europe, with ECBF (European Circular Bioeconomy Fund) and McWin Capital Partners joining as new investors. That followed a $45 million round in 2024 and earlier rounds including a 2022 raise led by Swisscom Ventures.

The company has used the capital to expand ARA production and push into the US market alongside its established base in Europe, positioning itself against larger agricultural-equipment makers that have built their own spot-spraying systems, such as John Deere's See & Spray from its Blue River Technology unit.

We track how well-funded agtech and robotics companies convert capital into deployed hardware in our robotics news hub and our directory of robotics companies.

How ARA Compares To Other Precision Sprayers

ARA's closest commercial comparison is John Deere's See & Spray, which also uses cameras and machine learning to spray only detected weeds, though at a wider per-target patch than ARA's UHP approach. Carbon Robotics takes a different mechanism entirely, using lasers rather than chemical sprayers to kill weeds on its LaserWeeder.

For growers who want zero herbicide rather than reduced herbicide, mechanical and laser weeding are worth evaluating alongside spot-spraying; our weed control robots guide compares these approaches side by side.

ARA's advantage is that it works within existing chemical-application workflows, so it fits operations that already spray but want to cut input cost and drift rather than replace spraying entirely.