Ag Robotics Demo Day showcases technology

The NAIO Oz Robot works in a demonstration field, showcasing its ability to sow, mark rows, cultivate and weed in market gardens and specialty crops. The demonstration was part of Ag Robotics Demo Day, held July 22 at the Ontario Crops Research Centre.

Amanda Nelson

Grant Haven Media

The 2026 Ag Robotics Demo Day was held July 22 at the Ontario Crops Research Centre, a University of Guelph research station, near Simcoe.

The field demonstration event brought together farmers, researchers, agri-businesses, students and government staff from across Southwestern Ontario. It was organized by the AgRobotics Working Group in partnership with the University of Guelph and Innovation Farms Ontario.

Small and large-scale companies from across Ontario demonstrated new and emerging robots, autonomous tractors, drones, precision-weeding tools and other agri-technology equipment in working crop fields rather than in a trade-show setting.

Norfolk Drone Services, a company that provides aerial spraying, spreading and mapping services for agricultural, landscaping and industrial applications, was among the exhibitors.

Owner Justin Schieck gave attendees a demonstration of the company’s spray technology and explained how drones can help farmers save time and reduce operating costs. He said drones can also be used when crop canopies become too high for conventional equipment or when soil conditions are too wet for field traffic.

“Once a canopy gets high, you can’t really spray beans or corn because it’s too tall,” he said. “In the fall, I really see drones tackling the heavy canopies where you’re not getting that 25 per cent loss from driving over your beans.”

Finite Robotics owner Matt Stevens presented the company’s robotic fruit-thinning technology, which is designed to help fruit growers automate labour-intensive orchard tasks such as fruit counting, crop-load measurement, tree-health monitoring and yield estimation.

“Each arm has a camera with two eyes on it,” he said. “It’s looking at the tree. It’s figuring out exactly how many fruit there are. It’s sizing every single fruit. It’s doing a cluster analysis and then it’s determining which ones it needs to remove. It does that in about 100 milliseconds, so 10 times a second, and then it reaches out and it cuts off the fruit.”

Stevens said orchard growers are facing labour shortages and rising labour costs, and that Finite Robotics is developing robotic and AI-based systems to reduce the amount of manual scouting and monitoring required in orchards.

Another highlight of the event was Ecorobotix, which demonstrated an AI-guided spraying system designed to reduce the use of plant-protection products and fertilizers.

Company representatives said the technology can reduce input use, labour requirements and spray drift. They discussed examples in which growers significantly reduced water use during spraying operations and emphasized the importance of lowering production costs for Ontario farmers.

The event was intended to give producers an opportunity to see emerging agricultural technologies operating in real field conditions and to speak directly with developers and researchers. 

Discussions throughout the day also focused on the role technology could play in attracting younger people to agriculture by creating new connections between students, innovation and farming.