whirrwork

Robot Price Index · Edition 1

No price moved in week one. Here is the baseline, and what we re-checked

Week 43 of 2026 (19–25 Oct 2026, UTC). Every number below comes from Whirrwork's append-only price history: real published prices, each with a source link and a date. Benchmarks, not quotes. No forecasts.

Published Next edition: Receipts CSVJSONMethod

What moved

Flat line. No published price moved in week one.

Tracking began on Oct 25, 2026, so every series has just one reading or a correction. A move needs two readings of the same price from the same source, so there was nothing to compare yet. Next week's edition compares against this baseline.

Corrections (not price moves)

  • Robotic lawn mowing: we had recorded $199–$799 / install; the source says $499–$799 / install. Our mistake, fixed by appending po_20261025_8693e849327e (supersedes po_20261025_c9cc1b9bb91c). zippylawnz.us

What we re-checked

  • Confirmed on the source page240
  • Changed (reviewed by hand)1
  • Needs a human look4
  • Source unreachable5

250 series re-checked (latest result per series this week). "Confirmed" means a script found the recorded number on the live source page. Anything else gets a human look; nothing is edited silently. Every re-check (CSV).

Category board

Medians only where 5+ receipts share a currency and unit

A median here is the middle of the receipts' midpoints ("from" prices count at their starting price). Currencies are never mixed or converted, and a median says nothing about any one supplier.

  1. Aerial & Drones105 receipts

    33 of 36 jobs priced

    • $360/ inspection · median of 7range $120–$3,000 across 3 jobs
    • $250/ search · median of 7range $200–$375 across 1 job
    • $100/ acre · median of 6range $10–$300 across 3 jobs
    85 receipts listed individually
  2. Events & Entertainment58 receipts

    14 of 18 jobs priced

    • $55,450/ show · median of 10range $25,550–$114,560 across 1 job
    • $3,995/ event · median of 6range $1,800–$7,000 across 2 jobs
    • $1,875/ day · median of 5range $299–$4,990 across 2 jobs
    37 receipts listed individually
  3. Home & Personal52 receipts

    16 of 19 jobs priced

    • $1,712/ unit · median of 28range $179–$38,000 across 14 jobs
    • $499/ month · median of 7range $49.99–$2,200 across 4 jobs
    17 receipts listed individually
  4. Agriculture & Forestry47 receipts

    13 of 23 jobs priced

    • $12/ acre · median of 9range $5–$20 across 2 jobs
    38 receipts listed individually
  5. Cleaning & Facilities40 receipts

    12 of 19 jobs priced

    • $1,749/ month · median of 14range $599–$4,600 across 4 jobs
    • $25,000/ unit · median of 11range $434–$95,880 across 5 jobs
    • $0.23/ sq ft · median of 8range $0.12–$3.5 across 2 jobs
    7 receipts listed individually
  6. Inspection & Asset Integrity28 receipts

    13 of 21 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    28 receipts listed individually
  7. Energy & Utilities27 receipts

    9 of 15 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    27 receipts listed individually
  8. Marine & Underwater21 receipts

    8 of 15 jobs priced

    • $2,999/ unit · median of 7range $849–$4,900 across 3 jobs
    14 receipts listed individually
  9. Research, Education & Telepresence19 receipts

    8 of 9 jobs priced

    • $4,250/ unit · median of 12range $1,600–$15,999 across 5 jobs
    7 receipts listed individually
  10. Healthcare & Wellness15 receipts

    8 of 13 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    15 receipts listed individually
  11. Retail, Food & Hospitality15 receipts

    6 of 10 jobs priced

    • $16,500/ unit · median of 5range $14,500–$43,000 across 3 jobs
    10 receipts listed individually
  12. Industrial & Manufacturing13 receipts

    10 of 22 jobs priced

    • $24,000/ unit · median of 7range $6,000–$43,544 across 3 jobs
    6 receipts listed individually
  13. Public Safety & Defense13 receipts

    8 of 9 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    13 receipts listed individually
  14. Security & Surveillance12 receipts

    9 of 11 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    12 receipts listed individually
  15. Construction & Building11 receipts

    6 of 23 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    11 receipts listed individually
  16. Environmental & Conservation8 receipts

    5 of 10 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    8 receipts listed individually
  17. Delivery & Last Mile7 receipts

    5 of 8 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    7 receipts listed individually
  18. Autonomous Vehicles & Mobility6 receipts

    3 of 8 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    6 receipts listed individually
  19. Logistics & Warehousing4 receipts

    3 of 14 jobs priced

    No currency + unit has 5+ receipts yet, so no median. Receipts are listed instead.

    4 receipts listed individually
  20. Mining & Tunneling0 receipts

    0 of 5 jobs priced

    No published price yet: all 5 jobs are quote-only.

Where sources disagree most

  1. Reforestation & tree-planting drones70×

    3 receipts in EUR / hectare: lowest from €50 / hectare (mycelium-reforestation.com), highest from €3,500 / hectare (skyseed.eco).

  2. Drone light show26×

    3 receipts in AUD / show: lowest from A$15,000 / show (droneskyshows.com.au), highest A$30,000–A$750,000 / show (flyingglass.com.au).

  3. High-rise window & facade cleaning11×

    5 receipts in USD / sq ft: lowest $0.12–$0.25 / sq ft (vistadronecleaning.com), highest $0.5–$3.5 / sq ft (skypsi.com).

  4. Drone light show5.0×

    4 receipts in USD / drone: lowest $80–$200 / drone (creativeskies.com), highest $550–$850 / drone (pub-mountainhouse.escribemeetings.com).

  5. Commercial floor scrubbing4.3×

    6 receipts in USD / month: lowest from $599 / month (rendara.com), highest $2,250–$2,900 / month (mlive.com).

Same job, same currency, same unit, at least 3 receipts from at least 2 different sites. The ratio is highest midpoint ÷ lowest midpoint. A wide spread usually means the "same" job hides very different scopes, so read the descriptions before you quote either number.

Newly priced, and still quote-only

189 jobs priced at the start of tracking

Categories with no price at all: Mining & Tunneling. See where the receipts run out. Seen a public price for one of them? Send us the link.

Use it, cite it

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Every figure traces to observation ids in the receipts CSV (502 rows: each one with its source URL, as-of date and the figure it feeds, in the used_in column) and the re-checks CSV.

Whirrwork (2026). Robot Price Index, week 43 2026. https://whirrwork.com/insights/robot-price-index/2026-w43/. CC BY 4.0.

Corrections

Found a wrong number? Tell us with a link. We fix it by appending a correction, never by overwriting, and the next edition lists it. Past editions are never edited: they are computed from time-stamped, append-only records.

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