Robots for the yard aren’t new—who can forget the gutter cleaning Looj robot, from the makers of Roomba? Of all the tasks many of us would love to outsource, those that take place outside are among the first that come to mind. And if you’ve got a pool robot and a gutter robot, why not a robot handle your mowing too? That’s clearly the theory the big brands are working from, as this year’s Consumer Electronic Show has already proven to be crowded with lawn care robots.
The outdoor answer to the robot vacuum
Now, robot lawnmowers aren’t entirely new. A number of brands have come and gone, and lawnbots were popular at last year’s CES too, introducing us to the LawnMeister, EcoFlow Blade, Landroid Vision, and the Optimow AI Robotic Mower. But the market has been plagued by high costs, iffy reviews, and the insecurity of setting a wildly expensive and easily stolen lawnbot free to roam your yard. Despite these setbacks, I still believe the great lawnbot of the future is coming.
Theoretically, the fact that robot lawnmowers are all electric means that they are better for the environment than their gas powered brethren. Think about the way that a robot vacuum maps the floor. Now apply that to your yard. Imagine being able to precisely map out a course so the robot only goes where the lawn is—maximum efficiency, minimal energy usage.
If you’re a person who owns both a pet and a robot vacuum, I know what you may be thinking: What about the poop problem? If you think animal poop is a problem inside, surely the problem is worse outside. Robot vacuums have made major strides in this area, using AI and cameras to avoid mopping your floor with your dog’s excrement. Imagine a future in which lawnbots can avoid such landmines too—and maybe even collecting and disposing of it in a poop receptacle, like our robot vacs do with their self emptying bases. Alas, we aren’t there yet.
For now, the robots introduced this week so far at CES promise to alleviate just the major pain point: mowing itself. So far, we’ve been introduced to the Lymow LyCut, the Ecovacs GOAT GX 600, the Mammotion Luba 2, and the Aiper Horizon U1. Only the Luba 2 has a listed price, and it tracks with previous lawnbots, which is to say it’s high—$2,099, to be precise. Other bots will be available later this year, whether via company websites or Kickstarter.
What these new lawnbots can do
The Aiper Horizon U1 claims to have improved on previous versions by using real time kinematic positioning. Acting as something of an internal GPS, the bot has it’s own inertial navigation system. Like most ground roaming bots, it offers both obstacle avoidance and the ability to sense changing ground conditions, the same way your floor bot knows the difference between tile and carpet. The UI promises to be able to cut 32,000 square feet of lawn (an entire kingdom of turf) and climb a 45% slope, which I’m not entirely sure I can do myself. Aiper has implemented wireless boundaries, which means we’re beginning to break free from treating these bots like dogs penned in by an invisible fence of buried wires. Speaking of dogs, the Horizon has animal avoidance and rapid charging too. From the dock, the Horizon can run for about two and a half hours before needing a recharge. It’s about as loud as a leaf blower.
The LyMow LyCut has a 21-inch cutting width and adjustable height, with the same collision avoidance promised above. Its major innovation are reciprocating blades, meant to help it avoid clogs. Lymow is aiming high by promising 100% slope incline, so if any of you have vertical lawns, test it out. The Lycut uses ultrasonic radars and bumper sensors for collision avoidance (think of a Roomba, which measures obstacles by bumping into them). Far more passive systems have evolved in robot vacuums, so this is a surprising feature in a new release. Like your robot vacuums, the Lycut offers the ability to create zones, either for high need areas, or no-cut areas. It includes geofencing, so that if it leaves the area for any reason—whether dreaming of greener pastures or being absconded with—you’ll be alerted. Information about battery life and capacity are TBD, and we can expect to see the Lymow on Kickstarter by end of Q1.
Points for naming go to Ecovacs’ Goat GX 600. To avoid the bump and run obstacle avoidance mentioned above, Ecovacs uses the same tech it refined in its indoor bots to computationally identify grass and non-grass areas, and applies AIVI 3D obstacle avoidance technology. Ecovacs already has a Goat in production, the G1, and it too is wireless and promises “centimeter-level precision”. We don’t know much about the GX 600, but you have to assume it builds on the G1, which can tackle a 45% incline and mow 6,000 square feet (seriously, who are these land barons of lawn?). The Goat Gx 600 will be available later this year.
The Mammotion Luba 2 is available for pre-order now. With a more conservative slope climb (38 degrees), Luba promises to go hard on a mind boggling 2.5 acres of grass. It has adjustable lawn height, is totally wireless, and uses 3D vision for navigation and obstacle avoidance. As with the models above, you can set zones for this bot, which promises to run for a solid three hours on an all wheel drive system with a banger suspension and omni wheels. Perhaps the smartest gimmick of any of these lawnbots: the Luba will let you choose a lawn pattern, and even actually print directly onto your lawn.
And lawns aren’t the only terrain CES is covering, with more bots for pools, leaves, and even composting. More on those innovations soon.
