Robotics Plus
Tauranga, New Zealand agricultural robotics builder acquired outright by Yamaha Motor in February 2025, forming the new Yamaha Agriculture division.
Robotics Plus is a New Zealand agricultural robotics company headquartered in Tauranga, founded by horticulture entrepreneur Steve Saunders and Massey University engineer Dr. Alistair Scarfe. Yamaha Motor acquired the company outright in February 2025, folding it into a newly formed global division called Yamaha Agriculture; Yamaha had previously held a 15 percent stake in Robotics Plus following a 2018 investment.
The company builds autonomous machines for orchard and forestry work. Its Prospr is a modular unmanned ground vehicle used for orchard spraying, weed control, pollination and crop monitoring across orchards, vineyards and specialty crops. The Optimr packing system automates fruit orientation and packing at post-harvest facilities, and the company's mobile and fixed log scalers use machine vision to measure log volume at forestry ports. Saunders and Scarfe's team has also developed a quad-bike-based kiwifruit pollination system.
Robotics Plus employs about 130 people, most based in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand with additional staff in the United States and Japan. The founders and staff remained with the company after the Yamaha acquisition, which positions Tauranga as a development base for Yamaha Agriculture's product line.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Prospr Autonomous Orchard Vehicle
Multi-use autonomous ground vehicle for sustainable vineyard and orchard operations, reducing reliance on manual labour.
Robotic Apple Packer
Multi-arm robotic packing system arranging fruit on trays at 120 apples per minute using proprietary coordination algorithms.
Prospr
Autonomous hybrid multi-use orchard vehicle with modular tool architecture for year-round crop management tasks.
Aporo Fruit Packer
Robotic fruit packing system automating orientation and placement of fruit with high reliability and accuracy.
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Contact Robotics Plus
WEBSITE
https://www.roboticsplus.co.nzPHONE
+64 7 552 6827HEADQUARTERS
New Zealand
Company Facts
Founded
2013
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Oceania
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
