Boston ? In a trailblazing pairing of robotics and tractor companies, iRobot and John Deere announced plans this week to build a 9-foot-long semiautonomous battlefield vehicle.

Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot Corp. will adapt the artificial intelligence technology used in its Roomba vacuums and portable PackBot military robots for a two-seat John Deere utility vehicle similar to ones the Pentagon uses.

The Military Robotic Gator, or R-Gator, will be the first of its kind to use off-the-shelf technology, making it easier and less expensive to produce than existing, custom-made vehicles, the companies said.

While the Pentagon is expected to be the first customer, the R-Gator’s developers hope to eventually draw interest from elsewhere for use in everything from responding to chemical spills to patrolling borders, said Helen Greiner, iRobot’s chairwoman and co-founder.

“The military is a great early adopter,” Greiner said in a phone interview from Washington, where the companies announced their plans at a trade show for Army contractors.

Moline, Ill.-based Deere & Co. and iRobot plan to begin pilot production of the six-wheel R-Gator by the middle of next year at a production cost of about $250,000 apiece, Greiner said. Full production is to begin in 2006.

The vehicle, five-feet wide, has three basic modes: autonomous, remote control or manually driven by onboard human operators.

Depending on battlefield circumstances, the vehicle could be controlled remotely, freeing up the soldiers inside it for other tasks, Greiner said.

The vehicle will be able to relay real-time video, audio and sensor readings from the field. Such capabilities could allow for unmanned perimeter patrols of a military installation, or for reconnaissance or carrying supplies such as ammunition, the companies said.

William “Red” Whittaker, a robotics professor at Pennsylvania’s Carnegie Mellon University, said the partnership would allow iRobot and John Deere to draw off each other’s strengths in military robotics, where bigger players including Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. loom large.

A battlefield vehicle is tested on a course in Massachusetts. John Deere Co. and iRobot announced plans to build a 9-foot-long, semi-autonomous vehicle like this one.