DEPLOYDatabase

Deployment

Tom at Leckford Estate

Small Robot Company (UK) builds Tom, a lightweight autonomous farmbot that surveys arable fields at the per-plant level, generating detailed maps of crop health, weed locations, and soil conditions. Tom is designed to cause minimal soil compaction compared to conventional farm machinery, and the data it collects guides companion robots Dick (targeted weeding) and Harry (precision drilling and planting). The company offers its robots via a Farming as a Service subscription model.

Tom by Small Robot Company · Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified

Track Tom at Leckford Estate

Machine-readable surfaces

Small Robot Company's flagship trial ran on the Waitrose & Partners farm at the Leckford Estate, Hampshire, beginning with a three-year trial announced December 2018 that tested the Tom monitoring robot alongside the Dick and Harry prototypes. Leckford remained a cited customer through 2022. The deployment ended when Small Robot Company entered liquidation on February 1, 2024. The pilot did not convert.

Key facts

Operator
Waitrose & Partners (John Lewis Partnership)

Safety record

No incidents on record for Tom at Leckford Estate.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Trust tier
Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified
Last updated
2026-07-09
Model
Tom
Company
Small Robot Company
Location
Leckford Estate
Status
ended
First seen
2018-12-10
ID
e0a9eb76-de9e-42ba-938b-56a422809cad

Sources (2)

  1. Farming robots begin trial at the Waitrose & Partners farm in Leckford · https://medium.com/smallrobotcompany/robocrop-farming-robots-begin-trial-at-the-waitrose-partners-farm-in-leckford-512c26fe0923 · 2018-12-10
  2. Agtech startup Small Robot Company shutting down · https://www.therobotreport.com/agtech-startup-small-robot-company-shutting-down/ · 2024-02-05
Methodology: Verified · 2 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-09

Verification posture

Verified

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-09

Maturity + lifecycle

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: agriculture

Sources by quality tier

1
unclassified
Unclassified source
1
secondary-trade-publication
Trade publication

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Methodology surface for Tom at Leckford Estate.

Common questions

What is the Tom deployment at Leckford Estate?
Tom, built by Small Robot Company, is recorded as a deployment at Leckford Estate on the DEPLOY registry. Small Robot Company operates the deployment directly.
Who operates Tom at Leckford Estate?
Small Robot Company, the manufacturer of Tom, operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.
When did the Tom deployment at Leckford Estate go live?
The deployment is recorded as starting December 10, 2018 on the DEPLOY registry. Earlier activity may exist but is not yet sourced.
Is the Tom deployment at Leckford Estate still active?
As of the most recent verification on the DEPLOY registry, this deployment is no longer operating at this location.
Have there been incidents at the Tom deployment at Leckford Estate?
No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.

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