What is the difference between FD20 and MK-V?

FD20 and MK-V are both agriculture robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.

Is FD20 or MK-V more autonomous?

MK-V has more capabilities independently verified as autonomous on the DEPLOY registry than FD20. DEPLOY counts a capability as autonomous only when verified at a real deployment, not from a demo or a vendor claim.

Which has more verified deployments, FD20 or MK-V?

MK-V has more verified deployments (3) on the DEPLOY registry than FD20 (1). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.

Buying guide

FD20 vs MK-V in 2026

Comparing 2 humanoid robots across availability, pricing, capabilities, and verified deployments. Current as of 2026.

Key differences

MK-V has more capabilities independently verified as autonomous (1 vs 0).
MK-V has more verified real-world deployments (3 vs 1).

Attribute	No image on file FD20 View full model page →	No image on file MK-V View full model page →
Manufacturer	FarmDroid	Monarch Tractor
Form factor	agriculture	agriculture
Maturity	commercial	commercial
Autonomy	—	✓ 1 verified autonomous
Availability	internal-onlyenterprise	discontinueddiscontinued
Price	Not announced	Not announced
Capability claims	—	Driver-optional autonomous electric tractor operation (autonomous, verified)
Brain	—	—
Verified deployments	1FarmDroid	3
Privacy practices	—	—
Sources on file	7	17

Editorial summaries

FD20

FarmDroid (founded 2018 in Vejen, Denmark, by brothers Jens and Kristian Warming) makes the FD20, a solar-powered autonomous field robot that both sows and mechanically weeds row crops in a single machine. There is no consumer price: it is B2B agricultural equipment, not a product sold to consumers. Lightweight at about 1,250 kilograms and powered by four solar panels with a roughly 1.6 kWh battery for 18-24 hours of operation, it uses 8-millimeter RTK-GPS to record the exact position of every seed at sowing, which lets it weed precisely between and within rows before the crop even emerges, herbicide-free. It has seen strong adoption in European organic farming and is at commercial maturity: by the company's own reporting it has sold more than 500 robots across 26 countries since first sales in 2019, on an independently corroborated growth curve, and it raised EUR 10.5 million in October 2024 to expand from organic into the conventional market. Several verified-vs-claimed points: claims of being the world's best-selling robot in this niche are marketing and not asserted; the herbicide-free description applies to the base configuration (the optional +Spray module micro-doses chemicals); and the North American presence remains early-stage trials rather than commercial scale.

MK-V

Monarch Tractor (founded 2018, Livermore, California; CEO Praveen Penmetsa) built the MK-V, a fully battery-electric, driver-optional smart tractor with a WingspanAI fleet-management and remote-supervision layer. There is no consumer price, and the company is discontinued. The MK-V did reach a genuine historical peak: it shipped to paying commercial customers starting December 2022 (the first being Constellation Brands, which took six tractors for its To Kalon vineyard), and Monarch raised more than $220 million anchored by a $133M Series C in July 2024 (recorded at commercial maturity historically). But Monarch collapsed through 2025: its Foxconn manufacturing arrangement ended (the Ohio plant was sold to SoftBank in August 2025), with layoffs and a shutdown warning in November 2025, a pivot to roughly 70% licensing revenue, and finally an assignment for the benefit of creditors; its assets and IP (the software-defined vehicle platform and perception stack) were acquired by Caterpillar around April 14, 2026, in an asset-and-technology purchase, not a going-concern acquisition. On autonomy, marketing of a fully autonomous tractor overstated reality: full autonomy was confined to a narrow dairy feed-pushing use case, while general field work was driver-assist with an operator aboard, and an Idaho dealer sued in September 2025 alleging the tractors could not operate autonomously. It is the wound-down anchor of the agriculture cohort.

Common questions

What is the difference between FD20 and MK-V?: FD20 and MK-V are both agriculture robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.
Is FD20 or MK-V more autonomous?: MK-V has more capabilities independently verified as autonomous on the DEPLOY registry than FD20. DEPLOY counts a capability as autonomous only when verified at a real deployment, not from a demo or a vendor claim.
Which has more verified deployments, FD20 or MK-V?: MK-V has more verified deployments (3) on the DEPLOY registry than FD20 (1). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.

Recent coverage

FarmDroid Field Robot Featured in award-winning Clarkson's FarmFD20 · AgentRecon · 2026-06-15
Monarch Tractor's collapse ends with acquisition by CaterpillarMK-V · AgentRecon · 2026-04-15
Monarch Tractor shuts down after raising 40MMK-V · AgentRecon · 2026-04-08

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