Abstract This paper focuses on the economic feasibility of applying autonomous robotic vehicles compared to conventional systems in three different applications: robotic weeding in high value crops (particularly sugar beet), crop scouting in cereals and grass cutting on golf courses. The comparison was based on a systems analysis and an individual economic feasibility study for each of the three applications. The results showed that in all three scenarios, the robotic applications are more eco- nomically feasible than the conventional systems. The high cost of real time kine- matics Global Positioning System (RTK-GPS) and the small capacity of the vehicles are the main parameters that increase the cost of the robotic systems. Keywords Agricultural robots Æ Grass cutter Æ Autonomous vehicles Æ Economics Æ Feasibility study Æ Robotic weeding Æ Crop scouting Introduction Precision Farming has enabled reduction of the area of management from the whole farm field down to sub field level. The scale-reduction process, however, could lead to the possibility of individual plant care systems called ‘‘phytotechnology’’, from the Greek word phyto = plant [see the Japanese Society of PhytoTechnology (http:// phytech.ishikawa-c.ac.jp/)]. Due to the increased data processing required to cover a complete field at the individual plant level, only certain operations could be carried out using human intervention and therefore different forms of automation, espe- cially in high value crops, are needed. In recent years, the development of autono- mous vehicles in agriculture has received increased interest to meet these S. M. Pedersen (&) Danish Research Institute of Food Economics, KVL, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark e-mail: Marcus@foi.dk S. Fountas Æ H. Have Æ B. S. Blackmore Department of Soil Science, KVL, Hojbakkegaard Alle 2, 2630 Taastrup, Denmark 123 Precision Agric (2006) 7:295–308 DOI 10.1007/s11119-006-9014-9 Agricultural robots—system analysis and economic feasibility S. M. Pedersen Æ S. Fountas Æ H. Have Æ B. S. Blackmore Published online: 27 July 2006 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006