About

Our mission is to bridge the gap between sustainability and scale by providing researchers and farmers with reproducible, lightweight robotics that reduce labour and environmental impact without proprietary dependencies.

The Open AgBot ecosystem is designed to bridge the “prototype gap” in agricultural robotics. It provides a Reference Hardware Design that is accessible to startups and a Production-Ready Software Stack that satisfies the rigorous requirements of research.

For startups, this eliminates ~18 months of R&D on the “plumbing” (drivers, networking, UI), allowing them to focus on their unique value (e.g., a proprietary seeding algorithm). For researchers, it provides a stable, repeatable environment where experiments can be shared across labs by simply sharing a Docker image.

Open Core: The brain

A fully open-hardware robot compute unit built around a stackable 10 cm × 10 cm module standard.

SBC A: Control & Safety

SBC A is the primary controller responsible for the robot’s physical integrity and movement.

Core Tasks: ROS 2 navigation stack, topological mapping, and EKF localization.

Hardware: Direct serial link to the ESP32 (Lizard firmware) for motor control and safety watchdogs, for deterministic real-time control.

Priority: Executes real-time path planning and emergency stop logic.

SBC B: Perception & AI

SBC B acts as a dedicated vision processor for compute-heavy tasks.

Core Tasks: Camera drivers, image pre-processing, and neural network inference (e.g., YOLO).

Output: Processes raw video into lightweight detection coordinates or semantic labels.

Priority: High-bandwidth data handling without impacting SBC A’s CPU stability.

Native CAN bus support enables robust field-level communication. Dual GNSS RTK receivers provide centimetre-scale positioning for navigation and task execution.

All schematics, PCB layouts, and firmware are released under open licences. The system is housed in a rugged, waterproof aluminium enclosure with M12 connectors, designed for long-term outdoor deployment.

Photo Component Description Qty
Yuzuki Avaota-A1 SBC Yuzuki Avaota-A1 SBC Octa-core 64‑bit ARM Cortex‑A55 (up to 1.8 GHz), 4 GB RAM, integrated AI accelerator. Open‑hardware platform. 2
ESP32-S3 Microcontroller ESP32‑S3 Microcontroller Real-time Lizard control node and general‑purpose peripheral I/O on custom open hardware PCB. 1
BNO055 BNO055 IMU Adafruit 9-DOF Absolute Orientation IMU Fusion Breakout – BNO055 1
CAN Bus Breakout CAN Bus Breakout CAN interface breakout for deterministic, vehicle‑grade communication. 1
SparkFun GNSS RTK SparkFun GNSS RTK
or alternate
Septentrio Mosaic		 High‑precision GNSS positioning with RTK support. 2
12V to 5V Power Conversion PCB 36V → 12V & 5V Power Conversion & Isolation from motor noise Custom‑fabricated power regulation and electrical isolation board. 1
Waterproof Aluminum Enclosure Waterproof Aluminum Enclosure Sealed aluminum enclosure with M12 connectors for rugged deployments. 1

Open AgBot: The body

The Open AgBot reference platform integrates high-performance motors, precise control, long-lasting batteries suitable for Low temp <0C charging and rugged suspension into a fully modular, open-hardware agricultural robot.

Modular chassis and standardised connections enable rapid expansion and reconfiguration, providing full control over electronics, software, and mechanics for a versatile, field-ready system.

Photo Component Description Qty
Odrive CAN Bus Drivers Odrive CAN Bus Drivers with (Open hardware version, in development) High-performance motor control with real-time CAN communication for precise torque and speed regulation. 2
14.5 inch,36V 500W hub motor 500W Hub motor Geared hub motors 100N.m with 4096*10 encoder delivering good acceleration and traction. 4
32 V Sodium-Ion Battery Packs 32 V Sodium-Ion Battery Packs High-capacity energy modules providing long-duration power for fully autonomous operation. 6
5 5″ Fatbike Suspension Forks Shock-absorbing suspension for smooth navigation across rough terrain and dynamic environments. 4
Modular Chassis Structure Modular Chassis Structure Lightweight aluminium tube sections forming a flexible backbone for sensors, processors, and actuators (round tube typically ~40 mm OD, ~37 mm ID). Many
Chassis Connectors Chassis Connectors Aluminium 90° crossover and modular pipe fittings used to join tubing at right angles for structural frames. Many

Open AgBot Mini (WIP)

A 1/4 scale development platform for testing and validation

Dev platform Components Description Quantity
Driver Odrive 2
Electric wheel Nema17 BLDC 4
Chassis structure 1515 extrusion many
Chassis connections 1515 corner Many

Software

Software stack(s)

Lizard

The Open AgBot Platform leverages Lizard developed by Zauberzeug for real-time robot orchestration, using its framework to manage sensor input, motor control, and navigation. Lizard enables seamless communication between the processor, microcontrollers, and peripherals, coordinating autonomous operations while remaining fully open and customisable. Lizard supports a range of motor drivers

RoSys

On top of Lizard, developers can use RoSys, an asyncio-based Python framework, to simplify control loops, messaging, and UI, providing the fastest route to a working robot. The agricultural implementation, Field Friend, builds on RoSys to coordinate autonomous navigation and field operations.

DevKit ROS

As an alternative to RoSys, developers can choose DevKit ROS, a full ROS‑based development kit tailored to the Open AgBot Platform. DevKit ROS provides standard ROS tooling, sensor drivers, simulation support and community interoperability, making it ideal for teams already invested in the ROS ecosystem or requiring mature libraries for perception and planning. We are working on a Docker image for this

Quick start Setup

Check readme

Docker

To publish your changes as a Docker after making local changes run

publish.sh samuk/basekit-ros:latest

Adjusting for your Docker account.

Get in touch