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Robot maker · registered

Lely

Corporate marketagricultureCurated record
lely.com

Lely is the pioneer of autonomous dairy farm robotics, having launched the Astronaut robotic milking system commercially in 1995 (first dairy milking robot). Their current product line spans the Astronaut A5 Next (AI-guided voluntary milking), the Juno autonomous feed pusher, the Discover autonomous floor scraper, and the Exos autonomous grass-harvesting-and-feeding system (commercially available mid-2024). The Exos autonomously navigates farm fields to cut, transport and feed fresh grass to dairy cows, completing more than 24,000 autonomous trips across 17 machines in 2024 with GNSS-guided field mapping. Boston Dynamics / PAL class: decades-old company whose current product line is AI-native autonomous physical systems.

HeadquartersMaassluis, NL
Founded1948
Corporate fundingNot disclosed
Team1000+
Deployments2
Open roles0
01

Company overview

Identity and operating footprint

Company typeRobot maker
Market segmentCorporate
StagePrivate
FoundersCornelis van der Lely (Co-founder, historical), Arij van der Lely (Co-founder, historical)
Regions servedNetherlands, Germany, Europe, North America, New Zealand
Countries deployedNot listed
Service footprintNot listed
Last reviewed2026-07-05
MX

Robot models

Specifications remain vendor-claimed

Machineagriculture

Lely Astronaut A5 Next

  • Autonomous robotic milking system; voluntary cow-traffic model; AI-guided arm positioning; records individual cow data per milking session

    Core function and autonomy architecture

    Claim source
Machineagriculture

Lely Exos

  • Fully autonomous outdoor grass harvesting and feeding system; GNSS-guided field navigation; 17 units commercially deployed in Netherlands/Germany in 2024, harvesting 22,000 tonnes of fresh grass across 24,000+ autonomous trips

    Commercial deployment scale and performance

    Claim source
DP

Deployment log

Announced and cited only

AnnouncedCustomerSiteCountryCountEvidence
2024-05-15David Cargill (dairy farmer, Balmoral Show NI)dairy farmGB1Announcement
2017-01-01Homestead Dairydairy farmUS36Announcement
TL

Company timeline

Milestones and announcements

2024-06-01Lely Exos autonomous grass harvesting system commercially launched; 17 units deployed in Netherlands and Germany harvesting 22,000 tonnes across 24,000+ autonomous tripsLely
1995-01-01Commercial launch of the Lely Astronaut, the world first robotic milking systemHistory of Information
SC

Source ledger

5 unique public sources

01
Automatic Milking Robot Lely Astronaut A5 NextLely · retrieved 2026-07-05
02
Lely Exos commercially available from 2024Lely · retrieved 2026-07-05
03
Lely celebrates 50,000th AstronautLely · retrieved 2026-07-05
04
Homestead Dairy Utilizes Lely Robotic Milking Systems to Milk Nearly 2,200 CowsLely North America · retrieved 2026-07-05
05
Lely Introduces the Astronaut Robotic Cow Milking SystemHistory of Information · retrieved 2026-07-05