CropSCOUT
Agricultural robot for small farms
AgritechB2B / B2GHardware
CropSCOUT is an autonomous robot for greenhouses and small vegetable farms that monitors and sprays crops on its own. The sprayer applies pesticide and fertiliser only where they're needed, in rows and plots too small for tractors. A camera and sensors watch for disease and send plant health reports to the farmer's phone. Our goal is to make intelligent agricultural automation accessible to small-scale farmers who cannot rely on large and expensive agricultural machinery.
Traction
39
Farmers surveyed
8,525
Crop images in AI dataset
100+
Parts in CAD model v1
- Undercarriage welded, 12V sprayer pump tested and a V2 dynamic CAD model built, Sep 2026
- Public crop-vision demo live; 3 ML/AI engineers joined (1 in Uzbekistan, 2 in the USA)
- Team: 2nd in a USAID agro-innovation contest (2023); FAO/IFAD 50 Young Talents winner (2026)
The problem
Greenhouse and orchard farmers in Uzbekistan still spray by hand. Spraying by hand puts too much chemical on the crop, which wastes it and puts at risk both the farmer and the people who eat the crop. We surveyed 39 farmers: 20 said a spraying robot would make their work easier, and 15 struggle to hire seasonal workers.
- Greenhouse and orchard farmers in Uzbekistan still spray by hand
- Hand spraying puts too much chemical on the crop and wastes it
- It puts at risk both the farmer and the people who eat the crop
- 15 of 39 surveyed farmers struggle to hire seasonal workers; 20 said a spraying robot would help
The solution
An autonomous spraying robot on tracks, built for greenhouse rows and wet soil. It sprays pesticide and fertiliser in exact doses: the nozzles switch on one at a time, so a diseased plant gets sprayed and its healthy neighbour doesn't. Less chemical ends up on the crop, and the farmer no longer sprays by hand.
- On tracks - Built for greenhouse rows and wet soil
- Precise spraying - Nozzles switch on one at a time, only where needed
- Disease watch - A camera and sensors watch the crop
- Plant health reports - Sent to the farmer's phone
The company
What makes it different
Sprays the plant, not the row
A hand sprayer or a tractor covers every plant alike. CropSCOUT's nozzles switch on one at a time, so a diseased plant is treated and its healthy neighbour is not, in greenhouse rows and plots too small for a tractor.
Who it's for
- Greenhouse farms and small vegetable farms in Uzbekistan
- Orchard farmers and plots too small for a tractor
How it makes money
- Main: seasonal rental of the robot
- Alternative: direct sale
Market
100,000+
Farms in Uzbekistan
~$22B
Agricultural sector
255,000+
Machinery fleet, ageing
Five or six years ago a robot for a small farm made no economic sense: sensors, batteries and controls cost too much. Ready-made mobile robot platforms are now affordable, so modular attachments can be built on top of them.
Competitors
- Local - Sinosotech and Claas Uzbekistan import the technology from abroad and resell it.
- Conventional machinery - Tractors and sprayers: single-task machines, inefficient on small plots and poor at spraying and mowing.
Founders
Asadbek has 7+ years of hands-on robotics experience. Studies at Arizona State University as an El-yurt umidi scholar and does research at its EcoRobotics lab, whose focus matches CropSCOUT's direction.
Winner of 20+ national and international robotics and IT competitions, with $10,000 in total prize money. In 2020 and 2021 Asadbek presented startup ideas to the President of Uzbekistan in personal meetings.
As founder and Chief Robotics Engineer of BESTARORG, led a team of 7 engineers. At ASU, helped found two student organizations and raised $50,000 for them.
Xudoyberdi Sultonov
COO / Chief Operating Officer at CropSCOUT
Asror Uralov
Chief Mechanical Engineer at CropSCOUT
Abbosjon Abdullaev
Chief Industrial & Software Engineer at CropSCOUT
Background
- Arizona State University, USA: El-yurt umidi Foundation scholar
- Researcher, EcoRobotics Lab at ASU; robotics work at INNO Technopark
- International Robotics Competition 2019: 1st in Uzbekistan, 8th worldwide
- Techstars Startup Weekend 2021: 3rd place and a $2,400 prize with Eyemed
- Robot-uz national competitions 2020 and 2021: 3rd place three times
- ASU Student Government senator: helped allocate a $400,000 budget for 2 years
We spent part of our youth in the fields and were busy building robots.
Milestones
- 3 SepBill of materials ready and Leaf Vision AI model working; $600 budget set for the sprayer
- 8-9 SepSprayer and undercarriage parts arrived; 3,750 cucumber and 4,775 lemon images added to the dataset
- 12 SepUndercarriage welding finished; NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano confirmed
- 14 SepSolidWorks CAD v1 ready with 100+ parts; public crop-vision demo live
- 18 Sep3 ML/AI engineers joined (1 in Uzbekistan, 2 in the USA); 12V sprayer pump test successful
- 21-22 SepV2 CAD model: from static to dynamic CAD with springs and sprockets
The round
$15,000
raising
Use of funds
Prototype and interchangeable attachments
45%
Field trials and first-farm rollout
30%
Team and operating costs
25%
