Burro: Greenhouse Grower’s 2025 Technology of the Year
November 24, 2025 
Burros automate many labor-intensive greenhouse tasks, including moving plants from propagation to shipping. | Burro
When Charlie Andersen co-founded Burro, Greenhouse Grower’s 2025 Technology of the Year, back in 2017, he saw a gap in the market. Specialty crop growers, he realized, were being underserved by major equipment manufacturers. “I wanted to offer a pragmatic, real-world solution to growers in this market,” says Andersen.
The eight years since then have been a continuous journey of developing autonomous vehicles that serve several purposes. “It was on one hand an opportunity for innovation, and on the other hand an opportunity to help growers solve problems,” Andersen says. “When I talked to growers across the country, they told me they were looking for something that could tow, mow, spray, patrol, or meet any of the other ubiquitous jobs that in too many cases are done by people because there’s no other option.”
Developed to Be a Problem Solver
Burros are autonomous robots designed to help growers work more productively while laying the foundation for broader automation where it’s needed most. The technology combines computer vision, high-precision GPS, and artificial intelligence (AI) to work with and around people and navigate independently from point A to B while performing multiple tasks along the way.
Andersen highlights several ways Burro is already solving problems for growers:
- Improved team efficiency: Burros automate repetitive tasks that otherwise rely heavily on people, such as moving plants from propagation to shipping, allowing greenhouse managers to deploy labor more strategically.
- Ease of operation: “The ease in setting it up and letting it run means a quick return on investment,” Andersen says. “We believe that’s appealing to both business owners and those working in the greenhouse or nursery every day. Autonomous systems work better when there’s buy-in not from the top down, but from the bottom up.”
- Indoor-outdoor flexibility: Greenhouses and nurseries rarely operate solely indoors or outdoors. Burro’s navigation system is designed for both, mapping entire sites, so teams seamlessly move between environments.
- Year-round versatility: Thanks to its multi-use design, Burro can support growers through every stage of the season. Early on, they may run nearly around the clock, transporting plants from the potting line to greenhouses. Midseason, they’re used to move crops house-to-house to consolidate space. And by late season, they transition to assisting with shipping and loading.
What’s Now and What’s Next
The team at Burro is focused not only on expanding the technology’s current capabilities but also on how it will continue to evolve. Yet for Andersen, innovation is about more than just equipment — it’s also about people and service.
“Most of our team speaks Spanish, including those with engineering degrees, which gives us the ability to easily communicate with the people using the machines every day,” Andersen says. “We can also track the location of every Burro being used in the market, and we offer 24/7 technical support.”
Burros help growers work more efficiently while laying the foundation for automation where it’s needed most. | Burro
That level of support, says Ryan Clifford, Senior Vice President of Revenue at Burro, is critical to adoption. “When something goes wrong, it doesn’t take long for the user to get frustrated and go back to doing things the old way,” Clifford says. “It’s important for us to quickly close those loops.”
As for what’s next? That’s a moving target. By the time you read this, there’s a good chance another new feature has already been added. Two features coming soon include:
- Voice communication: The ability to speak to the robot naturally — in any language — just like you would with a coworker and tell it what you want it to do.
- Smart system integrations: Burro is being designed to connect seamlessly with other automated systems in the greenhouse. For example, Burro and AdeptAg are launching automatic watering integration. When a Burro arrives at a watering station, the system activates automatically and runs for the present duration, delivering the exact amount of water needed as the robot moves through at a calibrated speed before continuing its next task.
Perhaps the most important goal is simplicity. Andersen and Clifford ultimately envision Burro becoming the greenhouse equivalent of a Roomba: you turn it on, let it go, and trust it to do its job.
“Autonomy is the biggest opportunity for the next generation. It’s using physical AI to manipulate things and do the work that people shouldn’t have to do, and this is how it starts,” Andersen says. “It doesn’t start with a humanoid robot or something crazy. It starts with a vehicle that drives around and is data acquisitive, anybody can operate, gets a little bit better every day.”
Words of Support for Burro
Prior to its win, Burro received several nominations for Greenhouse Grower’s 2025 Technology of the Year. Here’s what a few nominators had to say:
“Burro’s value goes beyond just savings. It’s forced us to rethink our layout and workflow, helping us streamline operations from the ground up. In a labor-tight environment like horticulture, time is money. The Burro saves both. It allows us to do more with fewer people and do it faster.”
“There is not a product like Burro AI on the market, and because of that, it gives Burro a unique opportunity to have a head start on creating the best product of its kind. The potential with Burros is very high, and there are many uses for them across the greenhouse industry.”
“Over the past five years, I have looked at several different autonomous units to incorporate into the nursery that I work at. Burro has been the only one that has had the vehicles that would work in our unique circumstances. They are continually striving to incorporate the latest technological advances into their vehicles to make them easy to use, easy to incorporate into existing systems, and handle all the challenges that are present in the horticulture industry.”
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