Directed Machines

Directed Machines’ flagship offering is the Land Care Robot (LCR), a modular, solar-electric autonomous platform built for heavy-duty land management across agriculture, renewable energy, and commercial grounds. A single LCR can “Mow, Tow, [and] Know” using interchangeable implements and sensors: mowing under and between solar panels, towing loads of 10,000+ lbs, inspecting crops and irrigation lines, hauling materials, or performing snow, grading, and grooming tasks. Using proprietary mathematical modeling, the LCR orchestrates autonomy using a Raspberry Pi (rather than a GP GPU), saving customers many thousands of dollars. Using special signal conditioning techniques and cameras like the RealSense D455, the LCR filters and interprets depth and color imagery from up to eight streams at a time, at ~15 frames per second, using only 10% of the Pi’s CPU. This technology allows the LCRs to operate with centimeter-level accuracy in structured environments like orchards, vineyards, and solar farms, where GPS/RTK alone is unreliable because of occlusions. Designed for 24/7, all-weather operation, the LCR runs nearly silently, is fully electric and solar-assisted, makes all decisions locally. It only relies on cloud connectivity for non-critical tasks (e.g., transmit telemetry, remote diagnostics, and receive over-the-air software and firmware updates).

The company supports multiple sales models to best fit customer needs. LCRs can be purchased as CapEx assets, leased as OpEx or other models. Customers can layer on additional services. LCR units start around $20,000 (configuration-dependent) and are quoted through a consultative process that accounts for acreage, terrain, climate, and required tasks.