Autonomous Hybrid Vehicle ‘Prospr’ and Yamaha Agriculture’s AI-driven Crop Prediction Platform Help Growers Boost Sustainability and Resilience in Vineyards
July 23, 2025 (Adelaide, Australia) — With global viticulture facing labour shortages, tighter margins, and increasing climate volatility, robotics and AI offer a scalable solution for growers. Autonomous field robotics and AI-powered digital tools from Robotics Plus and Yamaha Agriculture, Inc. are being showcased at WineTech 2025 in Adelaide this week.
Robotics Plus Prospr, a versatile autonomous hybrid vehicle for sustainable vineyard and orchard production, is driving a new future for viticulture. At Australia’s largest wine industry event, Prospr is on display at the Croplands exhibition site, its exclusive distributor in Australia.
Yamaha Agriculture is showcasing its powerful AI-driven analytics and crop prediction platform for data-based decision-making in the wine industry. The new company, launched by Yamaha Motor Co. earlier this year, focuses on delivering autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital solutions.
Together, Prospr and Yamaha Agriculture’s crop prediction tools help growers become more sustainable, profitable and resilient in the face of scarcer resources and climate change. These innovations are already delivering measurable results for growers in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
Prospr: Driving Innovation in Vineyard Management
Prospr is a robust autonomous vehicle featuring a unique modular architecture, advanced AI capabilities and all-day operation. It handles a variety of crop tasks, including automated intelligent spraying. Its hybrid diesel-electric engine reduces fuel consumption by up to 70%, lowers emissions, and cuts input use, supporting environmental sustainability, improving health and safety, and reducing operational costs and dependence on hard-to-find machine operators.
Designed for year-round flexibility and utilisation, Prospr adapts to different tools, crop types and growing systems to help growers maximise their return on investment. It’s already transforming orchard and vineyard management across the United States, Australia and New Zealand with Croplands’ designed and manufactured world-leading Quantum sprayer modules integrated onto Prospr.
Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), a global leader in wine with operations in Australia, the US, and New Zealand, was one of the first organisations to embed Prospr into its vineyard operations and has vehicles operating in several vineyards globally.
Will Drayton, Director of Technical Viticulture, Sustainability and Research at Treasury Americas, a division of Treasury Wine Estates, says, “Since the early development phase of the Prospr prototype in New Zealand, our global team has partnered with Robotics Plus on autonomous vehicles, with units now operating in a number of our vineyards. Prospr supports us in optimising vineyard management and minimising our environmental impact in line with our broader approach to sustainability.”
AI-Driven Data Insights for Wine
Yamaha Agriculture’s advanced precision crop prediction platform combines traditional crop data with AI to generate insights based on current climate drivers, weather observations, and forecasts. This enables winemakers to make data-driven decisions, optimise inputs, and manage variability across blocks to improve sustainability, fruit quality, and long-term resilience.
Treasury Wine Estates uses Yamaha Agriculture’s data analytics and AI platform to leverage vineyard data, combined with climate and satellite data, to deliver accurate harvest timing and yield predictions up to 18 months in advance, along with other insights to optimise vineyard performance.
Ben Harris, Vineyard Operations Manager, Treasury Wine Estates, adds, “These AI and analytics tools are key for Treasury Wine Estates as we continue to become a data-driven business, leveraging technology, platform and analytics to improve outcomes to produce high-quality grapes and increase efficiency.”
WineTech 2025
At WineTech 2025, attendees will see firsthand how these innovations are reshaping vineyard operations today, and preparing producers for tomorrow. Prospr and Yamaha Agriculture technology are on display at exhibition stand (#1237) until 23 July, at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
About Yamaha Agriculture
Yamaha Agriculture is a newly established company launched by Yamaha Motor Co., focused on delivering autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital solutions that help growers in the speciality crop market become more sustainable, profitable and resilient in the face of scarcer resources and climate change. For more information, see www.yamaha-agriculture.com
About Robotics Plus
New Zealand agritech company Robotics Plus, now part of Yamaha Agriculture, Inc., gives customers the power to adapt and thrive in a changing world. We specialise in the design and build of robotics, AI, and autonomous machines that reduce reliance on labour and provide data-driven insights for informed decision-making. Designed, tested, and proven in real environments to solve real problems, our solutions are brought to life by a highly agile and deeply capable team. We leverage the power of purposeful partnerships while remaining grounded in extensive robotics experience and have a genuine on-the-ground understanding of the realities of diverse and ever-changing agricultural environments. The result is products and solutions that not only have the smarts to do the job, but to keep doing it better, helping create a more sustainable and successful agricultural sector. For information, see www.roboticsplus.co.nz
