These Mowing Robot Brands Define the Market

You would like to buy a mowing robot, but first you want to get an overview of the different mowing robot brands? Then you are at the right place, because I have dealt with more brands of mowing robots than most people know.

Which brands of mowing robots dominate in the USA? In the USA, you will mainly find the mowing robot brands Husqvarna, Worx, Robomow, McCulloch, Ambrogio, Wiper and MowRo. There are many other manufacturers who do not yet sell their brands in the USA. However, this could change in the future as the popularity of mowing robots increases.

But how do the various brands differ? What are the distinguishing features of the different manufacturers? I want to clarify this in this article.

Common Mowing Robot Brands on the US Market

Mowing robots are especially popular in Europe, especially in Germany where I live, as well as in France and the Scandinavian countries. Here the market is already very mature, with almost dozens of brands and manufacturers competing for the favor of the buyers. That is why I am familiar with so many brands. In the USA, the market is still much more manageable, although this too is likely to change in the future. 

Therefore, in the first part I would like to introduce you to the brands that you can find mostly in the USA in a hardware store or at a specialist dealer, or that are particularly addressed at the US market. Further down I will go into the worldwide market.

Husqvarna

Husqvarna is a Swedish joint-stock company that primarily manufactures motorised equipment for forestry, gardening and landscaping. Its products include chainsaws and other cutting equipment and diamond tools for the construction, forestry and stone industry, snow blowers, pressure washers, e-bikes and motorcycles for off-road use, lawnmowers and, of course, mowing robots.

The company has been in existence since 1689, when it started producing muskets in the Swedish town of Huskvarna (formerly Husqvarna), which gave the name to the company. Husqvarna’s logo depicts a rifle barrel viewed from the front, with the elevations at the top representing rear sight and front sight.

Among all mowing robot manufacturers, Husqvarna’s mowing robots belong to the high-end mowing robots that also tend to be in the high price segment. Their mowing robots are extremely well-engineered and are based on long experience. Husqvarna even invented the first fully automatic mowing robot together with the Swedish company Electrolux AB. The company prides itself on producing mowing robots that can cope with particularly steep slopes.

Here is a promotional video of Husqvarna and one of her typical mowing robots.

In the US they are among the most dominating brands in the robotic lawn mower market, next to Worx.

Husqvarna calls its mowing robots “Automower”. They are among the absolute top products, but are also correspondingly expensive.

The Husqvarna Group AB also includes the companies Gardena and McCulloch.

Special Features of Husqvarna Mowing Robots

The special features of Husqvarna mowing robots include:

• Knife plate with small, freely swinging blades as mower
• Weather timer, which detects the growth speed of the lawn
• Locator cable for quicker return to the charging station, or to get to a specific point
• Remote start points on the guide wire or sometimes boundary wire to control certain points
• Automatic passage detection to navigate through very narrow passages
• Spiral cut to quickly mow a specific area where the lawn has become too long
• Designed for very large areas of up to 5000 sqm
• Coping with steep gradients of up to 45% (some models even up to 70%)
• Automower Connect to control and configure the mowing robot from anywhere
• Very low volume of usually only 58 dB
• Mowing in the rain is no problem
• Very well suited for complex gardens
• High-priced models with ultrasonic sensors so that the mowing robot brakes slightly before colliding

Models and Availability

Some well known models of Husqvarna are:

Automower 105, Automower 310, Automower 315, Automower 420, Automower 440, Automower 315X, Automower 430X, Automower 450X, Automower 435X AWD, Automower 520, Automower 550, Automower 535 AWD

You can find Husqvarna mowing robots at Lowe’s and Walmart.

Official website of Husqvarna: www.husqvarna.com

Robomow

Robomow is an Israeli company founded in Even Yehuda in 1995, then under the name of Friendly Machines and since 1999 Friendly Robotics. Unlike the manufacturers presented so far, Friendly Robotics is a company that specializes exclusively in the production and development of mowing robots. Along with Husqvarna, it is one of the pioneers of mowing robot technology.

To date, Robomow has nicely introduced five generations of mowing robots to the market (status 2019). Robomow Mowing Robots cover a very wide range of area sizes, from very small mowing robots for areas up to 150 square meters to huge areas up to 5000 square meters.

This is a promotional video of Robomow.

Especially in the area of large areas they are one of the few serious competitors of Husqvarna mowing robots. However, I would not speak directly of competition here, rather the mowing robots fill different niches or are suitable for different gardens. For example, Robomow mowing robots are better at dealing with fallen fruit and windthrow like branches because they have a different mower deck, while Husqvarna mowing robots have more intelligent navigation, for example.

Features of Robomow Models

Here are the special features of Robomow mowing robots:

• Robust star knife as mower
• This tolerates fallen fruit and windthrow better and also mows leaves quite well
• Very wide mower deck, partly with several shafts
• Therefore very fast mowing
• Edge mode to mow closer to the edges, leaving less grass around the edges
• SmartMow feature that provides better maneuverability and continuous mowing speed close to edges

Models and Availability

Some well-known models of Robomow are:

RS 635 Pro S, RS 625 Pro, RS 615 Pro, RS 615u, RC 312 Pro S, RC 308 Pro, RC 308u, RC 304u, RX 50 Pro s, RX 50u, RX 20 Pro, RX 20u, RX 12u

Official website of Robomow: www.robomow.com

Robomow mowing robots can be found at Lowe’s and The Home Depot.

WORX

The name WORX is not the name of a manufacturer, but only of the brand (so far I have introduced manufacturers who sell a brand of the same name). So WORX is the name of a brand whose manufacturer is the company Positec Tool Corporation based in Suzhou, China, which was founded there in 1994. It is therefore a Chinese brand. But do not think that this is synonymous with “cheap Chinese production”. That is no longer the case today.

The company started as a so-called “original equipment manufacturer”. These are companies that manufacture components or products that are not brought to the retail trade by themselves but are marketed by other companies, so to speak, they print their own brand + logo on them. Positec has specialized in the production of power tools as well as lawn and garden equipment.

Since 2004 Positec has been selling its own brand, namely WORX, which has now managed to position itself internationally as a brand competing with other brands. WORX is sold worldwide, but is most well known in North America and in Europe. WORX products have been sold there for a long time, for example at Walmart, Costco and The Home Depot.

Here is a current advertising video of WORX, which I think is hilarious!

Since 2014 WORX has been offering the so-called “WORX Landroid” mowing robots. They could be described as products of the lower middle class with a very good price-performance ratio. They have also become a very well-known mowing robot brand in the US.

Special Features of WORX Mowing Robots

Typical features of WORX Landroid mowing robots are:

• Edge cutting function, similar to the edge mode on Robomow
• Unlike Robomow, Landroids have a knife plate, like McCulloch and Husqvarna
• Multi-zone program, with which the mowing time on different mowing areas can be determined in percentage terms
• Equipment for medium to large areas up to 2000 sqm
• AIA technology (Artificial Intelligence Algorithm) ensures intelligent and efficient behaviour at edges (e.g. no kickback, as with other models) and better handling of narrow spaces
• Newer models with ultrasonic sensors to avoid obstacles (ACS)

Models and Availability

Some well known models of Worx are:

Landroid S300, Landroid M500, Landroid M700, Landroid M1000, Landroid L1500, Landroid 2000

Official website of WORX: worx-europe.com

Worx mowing robots can be found for example at Lowe’s and at The Home Depot.

McCulloch

McCulloch Motors Corporation is an American manufacturer of chainsaws and other outdoor power tools. The company was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1943 and initially specialized in the development and production of small gasoline two-stroke engines, which were used 5 years later in the company’s first chainsaws. McCulloch is widely regarded as one of the chainsaw pioneers who was instrumental in advancing the technology of his time.

A little later, the company was also active in the field of automotive and ventilation technology. Since the 1970s, however, the product range has been greatly expanded to include equipment for the lawn and garden sector, such as hedge trimmers, thread cutters and leaf blowers.

After various changes of ownership, McCulloch and its brand have been part of the Husqvarna Group since 2008. McCulloch mowing robots rank in the middle class and are almost on a par with Gardena mowing robots, with some minor disadvantages.

Here is a promotional video of McCulloch explaining how their mowing robots work

In terms of basic technology, McCulloch mowing robots are very similar to Husqvarna and Gardena mowing robots, which may be related to the fact that they all belong to Husqvarna Group AB.

Special Features of McCulloch Mowing Robots

Special features of McCulloch mowing robots:

• Knife plate with small, freely swinging blades as mower
• Locator cable to find the way back to the charging station faster
• Remote start points on the guide wire or sometimes boundary wire to control certain points
• Very low volume of usually only 59 dB
• Mowing in the rain is no problem
• Well suited for complex gardens

Models and Availability

Some well known models of Worx are:

ROB S600, ROB S400, R1000

Official website of McCulloch: www.mcculloch.com

McCulloch mowing robots can be found mainly at Walmart.

Redback

Redback is a company based in Colorado, USA, with the goal of producing electric power tools for the garden that are affordable for everyone. Their contribution to this in the mowing robot world is MowRo.

For me this is a new brand, because as far as I know their mowing robots are not sold in Europe. So I still have to deal with this brand for a while. But rest assured that I will provide more content on my blog.

Watch this promotional video of Redback’s MowRo to learn more about the mowing robot.

Special Features of MowRo Mowing Robots

Special features of the MowRo mowing robot:

• Knife plate with small, freely swinging blades as mower
• Average volume of 65 dB (data unsecured, insufficient information available)
• Usually equipped with rain sensor

From everything I have been able to find out about MowRo mowing robots so far, they are devices for the beginner. They are particularly easy to operate and are in an affordable price segment. But on the other hand, they are only equipped with the typical basic functions and do not bring any new innovations. They are therefore more suitable for small to maximum medium-sized gardens that are not too complex in design.

Models and Availability

Some well known models of Worx are:

MowRo RM18, MowRo RM24

Official website of Redback: https://redbackpowerusa.com/

You can get MowRo mowing robots from The Home Depot, for example.

Ambrogio/Wiper

Behind the two well-known mowing robot brands Ambrogio and Wiper is the Italian company Zucchetti Centro Sistemi S.p.A., founded in 1985 and based in Terranuova Bracciolini Arezzo, Italy. Zucchetti is active in the fields of software development, medical technology, vending machine development and robot development.

In the robot segment, the company also operates other brands, such as DogRobot (automatic feeding for dogs) and GroomRobot (automatic feeding for horses). So you know your way around robots.

Zucchetti distributes two independent brands of mowing robots. Ambrogio and Wiper mowing robots. Ambrogio mowing robots can be classified as belonging to the upper middle class in terms of price and quality. The Wiper models are also in this price category.

Here is a promotional video of Ambrogio.

However, Wiper YARD models are of a different caliber. They are designed for extremely large areas, equipped with the most advanced technology (e.g. DGPS) and are absolutely top class in terms of price (usually over 10,000 Euros). The Wiper YARD series is therefore not intended for the typical private home use.

Special Features of Ambrogio Mowing Robots

Special features of the Ambrogio mowing robots:

• Extremely strong cable signal (may disturb neighbouring mowing robots, but can also have advantages)
• Coping with steep gradients up to 50
• Some mowing robots without boundary wire
• Robust star knife as mower, it copes better with fallen fruit, windthrow and leaves
• Mowing robot of the high-end class equipped with DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System, allows some mowing robots to work without boundary wire like the L400 Carbon)
• All-wheel drive
• Edge cutting mode to cut closer to the edges, leaving less grass around the edges

Models and Availability

Zucchetti sells among others the following Ambrogio models:

L50, L50 Deluxe, L50 Evolution, L75 Deluxe, L200 B, L200 Deluxe, L200 Evolution, L200 Elite, L200 Carbon, L300 Basic, L300 Elite, L300 Carbon, L400 Carbon

Special Features of Wiper Mowing Robots

Special features of the Wiper mowing robots:

• Coping with steep gradients up to 50
• All-wheel drive
• No boundary wire, but grass sensor
• Robust star knife as mower, it copes better with fallen fruit, windthrow and leaves
• Spiral cut to quickly mow a specific area where the lawn has become too long

Models and Availability

The Wiper model range includes the following models (except Wiper YARD)

Wiper BLITZ 2.0, Wiper BLITZ XK, Wiper lawn robot Ciiky XE, Wiper lawn robot Ciiky XK, Wiper lawn robot Ciiky XH, Wiper lawn robot Ciiky XH Plus, Wiper lawn robot Joy XK, Wiper lawn robot Joy XK, wiper lawn robot Joy XH, wiper lawn robot Runner S, wiper lawn robot Runner SH, wiper robot mower One XH, wiper robot mower One XH Plus

Special Features of Wiper Yard Mowing Robots

The Wiper Yard models have some more special features:

• Suitable for extremely large areas up to 30,000 sqm
• Extremely high price
• GPS and digital map for better navigation and tracking
• Geofence against theft
• Mowing robot of the high-end class equipped with DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System)
• z. partly no boundary wire necessary thanks to DGPS
• Robust star knife as mower, it copes better with fallen fruit, windthrow and leaves
• Exit points to find your way back to the charging station faster
• All-wheel drive
• Spiral cut to quickly mow a specific area where the lawn has become too long

Models and Availability

The Wiper YARD model range currently includes the following models: YARD 101 S, YARD 201 S, YARD 301

Official website of Ambrogio: www.ambrogiorobot.com

Official website of Zucchetti: www.zucchetti.com

Honda

It is hard to imagine that no Japanese company would play along with the topic “robots”. And of course it’s not, because Honda is involved in the mowing robot market, even if only with a small market share.

Honda Motor Co, Ltd (Original jap.: Honda Giken Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha, engl. “Honda Research and Industry”) was founded in 1948 and is named after its founder Sōichirō Honda. It first started with the production of engines to power bicycles and thus also entered the motorcycle production quite quickly, later cars followed. Surely you are familiar with the brand, because Honda is now one of the largest corporations in the automotive industry and the largest producer of engines with an annual production of 22 million units.

But this is not his only area of business. In addition to activities in the aviation sector with its subsidiary Honda Aircraft Company, equipping industry with special equipment and drives, and the production of outboard motors and inflatable boats, the company is also active in the gardening sector.

These machines are called Honda Power Equipment and are above all motor-driven garden tools.

Honda’s humanoid robot ASIMO is also known worldwide. This is a humanoid robot that can walk upright. So robots are absolutely no new territory for Honda.

Here is a promotional video for Honda’s mowing robots.

Honda mowing robots are in the solid midfield in terms of price and quality.

Special features of Honda mowing robots:

• Coping with fairly large gradients of up to 45
• Relatively quiet with 62 dB
• Night operation for even quieter mowing
• Comparatively high movement speed
• Ordered mode for narrow and angled surfaces (not equivalent to Bosch Logicut)
• Maximum length of the boundary wire usually only 500 m

Honda sells the following models among others:

Miimo 310, Miimo 520, Miimo 3000

Official website of Honda: www.honda.de

There are other brands that seem to be not very active in the US market anymore, like Toro iMow and Kyodo America LawnBott, so I didn’t mention them here.

These were all the brands I know of whose mowing robots are currently sold on the US market.

Other Mowing Robot Brands on the Global Market

Outside of the US there are even more manufacturers selling their brands, especially in Europe. This section deals with well-known robotic lawn mower manufacturers that mainly operate outside the US as of now, but may eventually also enter the US market. This list is not even complete.

Gardena

Gardena is a German company based in Ulm and is one of the best-known manufacturers of garden tools in Germany. The company has been in existence since 1961 and is best known for its water hose plug-in system developed in 1968, which served as the basis for an entire system of gardening tools. The interchangeable handle connection from Gardena, which allows different tools such as a rake or a rake to be mounted on a handle, is also one of the company’s major innovations.

Since 2007 Gardena belongs to the Husqvarna Group. Technically speaking, Gardena mowing robots are therefore almost identical to Husqvarna mowing robots, although there are some differences in detail. However, these differences are usually more embedded in the software than in the hardware.

For example, Gardena mowing robots usually have a simpler menu navigation with fewer options to make operation easier for the user. Gardena mowing robots are also in a lower price segment and are designed for smaller gardens compared to Husqvarna mowing robots. The largest Gardena mowing robot, for example, covers 1300 square metres (as of 2019).

Here is a promotional video of Gardena explaining how one of their mowing robots works.

Gardena mowing robots could be described as high quality middle class products. They incorporate Husqvarna technology, but are made for smaller gardens and smaller budgets.

Special features of Gardena mowing robots

Gardena mowing robots are characterised by the following functions:

• Simple operation
• Knife plate with small, freely swinging blades as mower
• Locator cable for quicker return to the charging station, or to get to a specific point
• Remote start points on the guide wire to access specific points
• Easy Passage to better manage narrow corridors (like Husqvarna’s automatic passage detection)
• Newer equipment often combinable with Gardena smart system
• Very low volume of usually only 58 dB
• Spot Cutting, to quickly mow a specific area where the lawn has become too long
• Mowing in the rain is no problem (some of the latest devices even have IPX5 protection)
• SensorCut System, which ensures a streak-free lawn
• Partially combinable with SensorControl Set, which determines lawn growth
• Well suited for complex gardens

Some well known Gardena robotic lawn mower models are:

SILENO city 250, SILENO city 500, smart SILENO city, SILENO life 750, smart SILENO life 750, SILENO life 1000, smart SILENO life 1000, SILENO life 1250, smart SILENO life 1250, SILENO+, smart SILENO+

Official website of Gardena: www.gardena.com

Although Gardena also sells products in the USA, Gardena mowing robots are not easy to get. You can find a few products at Amazon.com, but these are mostly older generation models.

John Deere

John Deere is the name of a brand of the US company Deere & Company. The brand is named after John Deere, the founder of the company, who founded it in 1837 in Grand Detour, Illinois, USA. The company is the world market leader in agricultural machinery and sells forestry and construction machinery, as well as lawn and property maintenance equipment all over the world.

John Deere’s best-known products are tractors, combine harvesters, forage harvesters, mower-conditioners, balers, seeders, crop protection products, lawn tractors, lawn mowers, transport, utility and work vehicles, front loaders, wheel loaders.

No wonder Deere & Company knows all about mowing. That is why they have recently started to try out mowing robots.

There is only one mowing robot with a new and older version, namely the TANGO E5 Series II (or Series I).

This is a promotional video of John Deere.

I would classify John Deere as upper-middle class. Even if you can fall back on not yet very long experience with mowing robots, you will soon notice that at least John Deere’s many years of experience with agricultural machinery are incorporated. The machines really do look very robust and are of high quality. In any case, there is no messing around here. However, the market share is extremely small and the mowing robots are only sold by John Deere dealers (you may find SABO somewhere else).

Certainly John Deere will increase his repertoire with more models in the future.

Special features of John Deere mowing robots:

• Very robust star knife made of hardened steel as a mowing unit, it copes better with fallen fruit, windthrow and leaves and is very durable and weatherproof (the combine harvester experience probably plays a role here)
• Creates relatively large areas up to approx. 2000 sqm
• Mowing in the rain is no problem
• Relatively quiet with 62 dB

These are some of John Deere’s robotic lawn mower models:

Tango E5 Series I, Tango E5 Series II

Official website of John Deere: http://www.deere.com

Bosch

Robert Bosch GmbH is a German company founded in 1886 by Robert Bosch and based in Stuttgart. It has since grown into a large multinational company with many different divisions. You may know it as a manufacturer of household appliances such as washing machines or power tools such as boron machines.

Bosch is active in many other sectors, from automotive technology to industrial technology and solar technology. It functions as an automotive supplier, manufacturer of consumer goods, in the field of security technology, packaging technology, and countless other areas. Above all, Bosch has long been the largest supplier of automotive electronics and machatronics.

Bosch is also active in the mowing robot segment and in some cases takes a different approach than its competitors. Bosch mowing robots are rather a niche product. For example, they are quite suitable for a simple, rectangular garden, but they cannot cope at all with complex gardens with several areas. Bosch mowing robots are also comparatively loud. Nevertheless, they are quite suitable for certain gardens and requirements.

Here is a promotional video from Bosch.

Special features of Bosch mowing robots are:

• Knife plate with small, freely swinging blades as mower
• Logicut System, in which the mowing robot, unlike all competing products, does not drive chaotically through the area, but instead follows fixed paths and thus finishes its work approx. 30 % faster
• Auto calendar function: The mowing robot calculates an optimal mowing rhythm on its own, i.e. it decides for itself on which days and for how long it will mow. The function can of course also be deactivated.

These are some of Bosch’s robotic lawn mower models:

Indego 400, Indego 400 Connect, Indego 350, Indego 350 Connect, Indego S+ 400

Official website of Bosch in the USA: bosch.us

Stiga

Stiga was founded in 1934 under the name of Firma Fabriksprodukter in Sweden. While the company started in 1941 with the production of bullets and a few years later started with the production of table tennis articles and a little later table ice hockey games, the product range was extended in 1964 by lawn mowers.

In 1983 the table tennis division was sold completely in order to focus completely on the production of garden tools. Until the mid 1980s Stiga was the largest manufacturer of lawnmowers in Europe. Stiga is also known for its sledges.

Stiga merged with several other companies in 2000 to form the Global Garden Products (GGP) group, which was renamed Stiga Group in 2017. The company has production facilities in Italy, Slovakia and China.

Here is a promotional video of Stiga.

Stiga mowing robots cover a wide range of prices, but I would describe them all in all as mid-range products, with some more expensive models, which is mainly due to the large area output. Overall, Stiga mowing robots have a rather small market share.

Special features of Stiga’s mowing robots are:

• Robust star knife as mower, it copes better with fallen fruit, windthrow and leaves
• Borderless mowing so that less grass remains at the edge (like edge mowing function/edge mode of other models)
• Edge cutting mode to cut closer to the edges, leaving less grass around the edges

Some well known robotic lawn mower models of Stiga are:

Autoclip 221, Autoclip 225 S, Autoclip 230 S, Autoclip 528 S, Autoclip 530 SG, Autoclip 550 SG, Autoclip M3, Autoclip M5, Autoclip M7

Official website of Stiga: www.stiga.com

STIHL

STIHL is a German industrial group founded in 1926 that operates in 160 countries. The company’s main areas of business are engine-powered equipment for forestry, gardening, landscaping and construction. For some years now they have also been active in the field of mowing robots.

The STIHL mowing robots are products of the upper class and are priced at roughly the same level as Husqvarna, although their market share in the mowing robot sector is significantly smaller. The quality is high, as is the price.

Here is a promotional video from STIHL.

These are the special features of STIHL mowing robots:

• Coping with high gradients of up to 45
• Intelligent speed adjustment, depending on the gradient and nature of the ground, for better road grip
• Removable control console, with which you can also control the mowing robot by hand
• Mowing unit differs from all other mowing robots and is more reminiscent of mowing units of classic lawn mowers. Copes a little better with fallen fruit, windthrow and leaves
• More even wear of the blades, because the mower turns in a different direction after each start
• Edge cutting mode to cut closer to the edges, leaving less grass around the edges

Some well known robotic lawn mower models of STIHL are:

iMow RMI 422, iMow 422 P, iMow 422 PC, iMow RMI 632, iMow RMI 632 P, iMow RMI 632 C, iMow RMI 632 PC

Official website of STIHL in the USA: https://www.stihlusa.com/

Yard Force

Yard Force is a brand of SUMEC Hardware & Tools Inc., a company headquartered in Nanjing, China, which also operates the G-Force and PowerG brands. SUMEC Hardware & Tools Inc. is part of the SUMEC Group Corporation, a Chinese group also based in Nanjing, which in turn is part of the China National Machinery Industry Corporation (Sinomach), a globally operating Chinese conglomerate of companies in the tooling, engineering, agricultural equipment and infrastructure sectors with headquarters in Beijing.

With Yard Force, the company focuses on gasoline, electric and battery powered outdoor equipment. Its products include lawn mowers, mowing robots, snow throwers, scarifiers, grass and hedge trimmers, chain saws and high-pressure cleaners.

But let us now move away from opaque group structures and towards the Yard Force mowing robots: They are relatively new in the market, having launched their first generation of robotic lawn mowers in 2016.

Here a promotional video of the Yard Force mowing robot.

After reading through several field reports, I consider the Yard Force mowing robots to be interesting entry-level models in the lower price segment that do justice to their price. That means you can of course not expect high-end technology and top quality, as with Husqvarna, but they do their job reliably and do not break down immediately. They are more suitable for small gardens. However, Yard Force mowing robots often only cope with particularly “mowing robot friendly” gardens.

Special features of Yard Force mowing robots:

• Particularly good price-performance ratio in the low price range
• According to the manufacturer, creates very high gradients of up to 50 %. Experience has shown that this is somewhat exaggerated, but 35% is already in it.
• Knife plate with small, freely swinging blades as mower

Yard Force currently offers the following mowing robots:

SA500ECO, SC600ECO, SA900, SA600H, SA800PRO

Official website of Yard Force: www.yardforce-tools.com

Special Mentions

Here I would like to list a few more special brands. These are e.g. startups with innovative new products which you cannot yet get or only in a roundabout way.

Toadi

Toadi is a startup from Belgium that was financed by Kickstarter and started in 2016. Their goal is to develop a mowing robot, which navigates similar to a self-propelled car, only by camera and artificial intelligence. So there is no need to install a boundary wire. At the same time, the devices are extremely safe and do not run the risk of leaving their mowing zone, unlike previous mowing robots without boundary wire.

Toadi gets the job done pretty fast, as he doesn’t mow according to the chaos principle, but rather drives in orderly tracks. Moreover, the device can be used as a guard robot at the same time. It has a night vision camera and can monitor a relatively large area.

Another special feature is that the models are produced in 3D printing from sustainable materials – in the immediate vicinity of the buyer. This is done using 3D printing stations that have already been set up in many countries.

The device has already been tested in 2019 with various beta users on 150 different surfaces. In 2020 another 500 toadis were distributed. Currently you can only pre-order the mowing robot via Kickstarter, here.

Special features of Toadi

• Navigation without boundary wire, only with camera and artificial intelligence
• Suitable for mowing areas up to 0.6 acres or 1.2 acres depending on the model
• guard area up to 1.8 acres or 3.6 acres
• Creates moderate gradients up to 35
• Produced in 3D printing from particularly environmentally friendly material
• Cool color selection (C-3PO Gold, Solo Silver, Leia White)

Available models:

• Toadi
• Toadi Pro

Official website: www.toadi.com

IRobot

iRobot is not a newcomer to the robot market. Founded in the USA in 1990, the company has been building service robots for many years and is particularly well known for its vacuum cleaner robot “Roomba”.

But only now does iRobot want to enter the mowing robot market. For a long time they have been tinkering with a device that should be able to navigate in any garden without any problems and without boundary wire.

For this they use the so-called Beacon technology. This involves distributing small transmitting antennas in the garden, which set up a radio network in the garden. The mowing robot can then use this to determine its position at any time.

This mowing robot also mows in lanes and thus works much more efficiently than its “chaotic” colleagues. Unfortunately you cannot buy the mowing robot at the moment. The mowing robot should be on the market in the USA next year.

Special features of Terra:

• Navigate without boundary wire. Uses beacons instead
• Efficient mowing in lanes
• copes very well with bumps, stones and roots

Available models:

• Terra

Official website: www.irobot.com

Volta

Volta is a start-up company based near Milan, Italy. They advertise their mowing robot “Mora” by saying that it is the first vision-powered mowing robot. Therefore, this device does not use a boundary wire either.

Just like the “Toadi” the “Mora” is a mowing robot that navigates with camera and artificial intelligence. The idea is that the mowing robot can simply be set down anywhere and you can start mowing immediately, without any further aids.

Since the startup is still in a rather early phase, unfortunately not much more is known about the device. But I am keeping an eye on it.

Special features of Terra:

• Navigation without boundary wire, only with camera and artificial intelligence
• Particularly safe, detects objects and people/animals already from a distance

Available models

• Volta Mora

Official website: www.volta.ai

As you can see, we can soon hope for many exciting innovations. I am particularly curious to see how the new generation of AI-controlled mowing robots will be able to do everything.