Robotic mowers are revolutionizing lawn care. Gone are dreaded weekend hours of lawn mowing. But is it a simple or complicated switch?
The idea of replacing old noisy, smelly gas-fired lawnmowers with independently operating “robo mowers” is wonderful.
Technological advancements have infiltrated every aspect of our lives. Smart home devices can make tasks more efficient, convenient, and environmentally friendly. One such significant transformation is quietly taking place in lawn care. Robotic mowers are revolutionizing the way we maintain our outdoor lawns.
Robotic mowers, often referred to as “robo-mowers” are autonomous machines designed to cut grass with minimal human intervention. These innovative devices have gained popularity due to their ability to provide precise and consistent lawn maintenance while requiring little effort from homeowners.
How Robo Mowers Work
The Robotic mowers operate on the principle of autonomy, utilizing a combination of sensors, software algorithms, and electric motors to navigate and mow lawns. Here is the key development: The latest generation of robot mowers no longer requires the installation of boundary wires.
In older generations, small, boundary wires needed to be placed into a trench. Homeowners, including SHGLiving’s Ashley Renne, will tell you that various lawn care projects often cut the lines. Tracing and fixing problems then creates anything but easy lawn care in the end.
To ensure that your wifi system has proper power and range check out SHG Living’s Wifi Basics. This is an important step so that technology doesn’t become frustrating!
Today’s robot mowers mow designated lawn areas after being defined in the app without the need for boundary wires. Homeowners direct the robot mowers via the app along the boundary of a given area.
Benefits of Lawn Care with Robotic Mowers
- Time-Saving: Robo mowers eliminate the need for manual mowing, freeing up valuable time for homeowners to focus on other activities.
- Consistent Results: Unlike human-operated mowers, robotic counterparts follow predetermined mowing patterns making your lawn look like a golf course.
- Quiet Operation: Robotic mowers are significantly quieter than traditional gas-powered lawnmowers, reducing noise pollution in residential areas.
- Environmental Friendliness: Electric-powered robo mowers produce zero emissions during operation, contributing to a cleaner and greener environment.
- Safety Features: Most robotic mowers are equipped with sensors that detect obstacles and automatically shut off or change direction to prevent accidents.
6 Rarely Discussed Decision Points
Watching a robo-mower in action, you will want one for your lawn care. But which one? Here are six rarely discussed but truly important factors:
(1) Your Lawn Care Terrain: Some robotic mowers do better than others with inclines. Mammotion’s Luba2 has a 4-wheel system which allows it to handle inclines well in vertical or diagonal mowing patterns. It slides a bit on uphill areas during horizontal mowing patterns.
(2) Location of the RTK Unit: A key feature of the robo-mower system is the location of the system’s RTK unit. It directs the robo-mower via GPS. To ensure signal quality, be sure that the signal is not blocked by a structure, such as your house, sheds, or tall nearby trees. Also, know the travel range of your robo-mower away from the RTK unit.
(3) Working Time: While technically the robot mowers works day and night, changes in signal strength might get the robot stuck at night while camera functions are not available.
(4) The Cut Width: The distance from the blades to the perimeter of your lawn is an important factor as this section will not be reached by your robo-mower. This strip will still have to be trimmed separately and manually.
(5) Blades Configuration: This layout affects the cutting width dramatically. It also affects the width of the perimeter strip that has to be trimmed. Two side-by-side cutting wheels are preferred.
(6) Start-up Tip: Before operating your robo-mower, run a full software update. This sounds obvious but no video reviewer, nor the customer care center of the distributor ever suggested it. Until this update, the robot was doing strange things. This made the unit REALLY frustrating to the point of returning it!
The Future of Lawn Care
As technology continues to advance, the capabilities of robo-mowers are expected to evolve further. Enhanced navigation systems, improved battery life, and integration with smart home platforms are just a few potential developments on the horizon. That said, the technology is now at a point of making robo mowers effective and pretty reliable.
Well-established lawn mower manufacturers like Husquavarna have units on the market. Others like John Deere have marketing materials out there but their US dealers do not yet offer them. Toro was rumored to come out with its robotic mower but no units have come on the market as yet.
Technology companies like Mammotion are gaining customers rapidly. Eco Flow and Worx are also well-positioned for smaller lawn areas.
Time Is Valuable
While today’s units are not perfect and still require trimming around all edges, getting away from the “shlep” or lawn mowing AND having a beautifully cut lawn is too hard to pass up. As environmental consciousness grows, the demand for eco-friendly lawn care solutions like robotic mowers is likely to increase. It’s time to check them out for your lawn care.
