Kiwi trio invent world's first robotic tractor

When French wine giant Pernod Ricard couldn't find enough tractor drivers to manage its vineyards, it branched out to three Blenheim blokes for some Kiwi ingenuity.

Four or five years of ambitious engineering later, the world of wineries can now say hello to Oxin - an autonomous robotic tractor that does everything humans do in the field, only better.

The Autonomous Vineyard Tractor - or AVT - can defoliate, mulch, mow, trim, keep the weeds down and even use sensors to capture environmental data.

The robot isn't just a prototype either - the Oxin company has made 20 autonomous tractors now, and it's about to send its first to Australia.

Australian service representative Angus Cochrane told Seven Sharp that his team's invention shuts down beliefs that New Zealand's engineering mindedness is far from "petering out".

Co-founder Nick Gledhill seconded this, saying "it's in our pedigree right?"

"We're a nation of problem solvers and doers and take the limited resource we have to tackle some real global problems."

Watch Oxin bear the fruits of their labour in the video above