Live Greenzie support: Call for support while in the field for real-time fixes.
The Software
Mow the boundary once, and the mower fills in the rest
Remembers maps and can repeat them when you come back. Just place it in the previous boundary.
Create no-go zones that will be saved with your map to avoid hitting hard-to-see obstacles like drain covers or small pipes sticking out of the ground.
Record and repeat: Record yourself mowing the entire property, and the mower will replicate your movement.
Manage the mower with the controller or a smart device in real-time.
Advanced fleet support: See how your fleet is performing. Replay entire jobs, not just a dot on the map.
Run multiple units at once.
Set the stripe angle (for those stunning cross-hatch patterns)
Okay somehow the words rock solid wireless emergency stop seem oxymoronic. I don’t care how it was programmed what wireless communication system uses or anything else. I have a hard time believing wireless emergency stops can be foolproof.
Depending on where it is, $45k may be lower than the yearly salary for someone who would operate it (not including the other benefits like insurance or other costs like workman’s comp). So yeah, could definitely pay for itself in as little as 1 year based on that alone.
Depends on how much maintenance it requires. And someone is going to need to be paid to deploy it and watch it to ensure that nobody fucks with it and that it doesn’t eat some park sunbather or something. And to make sure the grounds are clear of debris. Etc.
Don’t think you can count on just removing a salary here.
If you want one for your own yard, there are significantly cheaper options. The husqvarna automower is under $1000 and can be integrated into Home Assistant. I’ve seen a lot of positive opinions about it in the HA communities
Nah, my yard is tiny and I don’t mind mowing it. I have a Ryobi battery mower so it’s super-easy to do. If I ever move somewhere with a bigger yard though I would seriously consider it. Especially as I already have Home Assistant running!
Hello fellow Ryobi mower owner. Or as I call it, my $500 gym membership.
I have a big old ride on mower as well but hate all the noise and the smell of exhaust, so rather just take three times as long pushing the Ryobi about.
Nothing quite like the satisfying thwack when it eats a small blackberry bush or snaps a runaway wysteria tendril.
At least the Ryobi is super-lightweight! I can easily carry it out of my garage and even with the battery it’s far lighter to push around than a gas mower. I’m hard on blades though with so many sticks and pine cones, no matter how many I pick up I always miss some.
I’m about to move into my first home with a yard and I’ve been debating it. I have terrible allergies and even though I really wanted to as a kid, I couldn’t mow the lawn because I’d have snot running down my face half way through.
I haven’t had a reason to try again for a couple decades but I was gifted a mower so I’m gonna try doing it myself this summer. If it’s bad and I can’t find a local kid to hire, automower it is!
Oh my allergies are horrible too, I just make sure to take a Sudafed (can’t recall the generic name) before I start. I love that stuff, we always keep a stash around especially as you have to get it from the pharmacy and they don’t keep very much stock it seems.
Yeah, there’s a $600 model where you have to put in wire and the lowest price RTK is about $1k. I’ve got people in my neighborhood with both and they’ve both said good things about it.
At a quick glance on that site I didn’t see any information about safety. Did you come across anything?
I guess there is the line about object sensors, but would like to know a little more before deploying something with rotating blades (which is still pretty cool, don’t get me wrong)
And can it avoid running over trash? Because if they automate the mowing you better believe nobody is out picking up the trash before mowing. And are they paying someone to ensure nobody vandalizes the machine so the cost savings is moot.
Well hopefully they bought one of those flame throwing robot dogs that sits crouching in the woods in case someone tries to spray paint a penis on this thing.
I built an autosteer called AgOpenGPS for our tractors that pretty much does this. Cost about $1000 per unit. We still sit in the tractor because there’s a hell of a lot going on besides steering the tractor, but it will drive the entire field without intervention.
My dog is super fascinated by lawn mower robots. Every time we see one he has to stand and watch for a couple of minutes. I wonder how he’d react to one of this size. Interestingly, he doesn’t care much for our robot vacuum. For the most part he avoids it, sometimes he lays down in its way and freaks out when it bumps into him.
My crazy dog has always wanted to bite the push mower whenever it moves. I suspect he thinks it growls at him. He’s fine until it starts moving, then he goes crazy. Naturally he’s contained for his safety when mowing takes place.
Ooh. Is it like aggressive or playful? My dog gets a mix of playful and scared when the proper vacuum comes out and I suspect it’s because it “stands” in that front down back up playful position, and then howls like a banshee.
Keeping both of our boys away from mowers sounds like a good idea haha.
It’s sorta playful, but seems like it could get out of hand. Mostly goes for the wheels. The playbow must be a powerful piece of dog language. There’s a consistent misunderstanding when anybody tries to tie their shoes here.
I had a job offer at a place that makes robotic lawnmowers, but they required you to go to Florida and Texas every year for “field testing”. We have sunshine 300 days a year here, and we also don’t have barbaric laws stripping people of their rights, so I turned it down.
Why is that worth a post? I suspect there are more lawn robots here in Germany than Dads mowing the lawn. Also, you don’t want to know what those things typically do to Sonic’s babies if they are programmed to mow at night.
Am I alone in thinking it should be “is being mowed” because “mown” is a resultant property of the grass? Like being melted and being molten. Or is it one of these things non-native speakers develop a keen intuition for to be able to spot it just to be blind-sided by native speakers not giving a fuck.
I mowed the lawn, the lawn was mowed, has already been mowed… a freshly-mowed lawn. I’m not sure if I’d ever actually use “mown” as a conjugation of “to mow”.
I admit, it’s very impressive and cool to see in person, but at what cost? This particular instance has taken away someone’s job. There is no human remotely controlling it. Now imagine how many of these are currently out there and will be deployed in near future? For each one there is someone’s income being taken away. Sure, we can argue that this autonomous machine has create jobs becuase, some had to build it. Yes, it’s true, but those hired to manufacture are fraction of the lawnmowers needed to cut grass not one but throughout the spring had summer seasons. In a broader context, this is becoming an issue for many low skill jobs and essential jobs. (i.e. self-checkouts at fast foods and other retailers, security posts in airports, malls, etc.) Look up Amazon Digit to see what amazon is up. While many will find it beneficial and this is really hurting the class that needs the money the most, needs the health benefits that comes from there income.
Mowing lawns are boring and you look at it the wrong way. In a better future less people have to work their ass off, enjoying more free time to do whatever they want to do. Maybe spend time with your kids, go out fishing, hiking, do whatever. This is a future I want to see and the more jobs “lost” to robots, the better.
Now for this to be true there have to be large changes in how everything works. Basic income is one thing for example. Nobody should be suffering over not working their ass off but we are not there yet and today exactly as you say, there is probably someone who doesn’t need more money just getting more cash in their account instead, sadly.
I share this sentiment, however, you are talking about the system wide change. This is a long-term solution or a mid-term with revolution. I am talking about in the context of the current social and economical environment where no such system exisit. First there needs to an effort to more towards eliminating human labor for the benefit of the people BEFORE human labor is eliminated. Corporations and the rich do not care about the former. We cannot fall into this trap. AI and autonomous machines can be great for society as long as it is not at the cost of the working class. Technology is there or fast approaching, but society is not, policies are not. Corporations are.
Robot lawn mowers are very common in Europe. You’ll see these small electric mowers in people’s yards all over the place. Businesses also have them running all day out front. Never seen one in the US.
They are equipped with GPS, so they are locked to a specific area to prevent theft.
GPS are very fancy ones, unless that’s changed since I last looked into it. A buried wire, “invisible fence”, has been the norm for all consumer grade ones I’ve seen.
I think the wire ones usually do too. When they’re out of power and possibly if it rains, they go straight until they reach the wire, and then follow it home to dock.
Yes, I believe the GPS ones are also guided by a wire to find edges and find their way home. The GPS is mostly for theft prevention. Won’t work outside a specific area unless it’s unlocked from the backend.
Pure electric mowers have gotten really good. Even for a more industrial-sized mower like that which covers a lot of land, there’s not much reason that any new mower should be gas.
When it comes to robot mowers, all the more so. Even if it can’t handle the entire area all at once, that’s OK, it’s a robot. Program it to do one area, go back to charge, then do another.
I am not saying they couldn’t be all electric, but at the moment may not be the ideal choice, for efficiency and quality. Consumer electric mowers favor have independent motors for each blade. Not sure if this has to do with the physical size of the motors or something to do with voltage needed for larger motors or something else. Regardless this means that when a blade gets bogged down it doesn’t have the additional rotating mass of the other blades to help it power through.
Also Looking at top of the line consumer zero turn mowers there seems to be about a 1 to 1 ratio of charge time to acres cut. With a limit of 3 acres with the largest battery pack which is about 16 Ah
According to the American Planning Association’s Standards for Outdoor Recreational Areas(yes this is a thing). It seems that large parks start at 3 acres in size and parks with Athletics fields start at 10 acres. Even with a swappable battery it probably is impractical to try to do multiple parks in a day.
Simply to get early adopters on board your product you have to show your product doesn’t has any decreased capability compared to current legacy options. I am sure this thing already costs more I don’t think it would sell if it also mowed less.
I am sure we can get there, but it will require transition products like this.
Consumer electric mowers favor have independent motors for each blade
Big blades are unnecessary with robot mowers. I’m sure there are examples of it, especially in the bigger zero turn mowers that are probably retrofits of existing riding models, but there’s actually a simpler approach that works with how automation changes the way it’s done.
When you’re mowing every day with a robot, you only need to clip a little bit each day. When you do that, you don’t need a big heavy blade. Many of those robot mowers have nothing more than a wheel with three or four razor blades screwed on at the edge. They aren’t going to hit something heavy, because again, it’s doing it every day and keeping everything trimmed all the time. It’s safer, too.
When I’ve talked about my own robot mower at home to friends and neighbors, the thing people have trouble getting over is how you don’t just do what you’ve been doing, only robot. I tell them it trims a small amount every day, and they snicker a little. Then they think about it for a moment and it makes sense.
This cascades down to how the lawn is handled by services. Instead of trying to do the current system, only robot, change the approach. Even if each park isn’t going to have its own mower, there can be one truck delivering mowers all over town. Perhaps there are other models that would end up working better, but the point is that swapping out the current equipment for a robot version isn’t the way to think about it.
The controller board should scale up without a big jump in cost. A larger zero turn mower doesn’t need a significantly different controller to a residential mower. A big cost on those is the GPS sensor. It has to be a relatively high accuracy one for it to work, and that ability has only come down to <$300 in the last few years (it used to be “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” territory). Otherwise, it has to use a boundary wire or something like that, which is the biggest downfall of the one I have. Boundary wires suck.
Once it has enough circuitry to handle the sensors–a larger mower probably needs a few more, but not a huge amount–then it’s good enough. Even if it adds $600 to the cost of a residential mower, it may only add $700 to a big zero turn. Cost gets proportionately less as the mower scales up.
I am not saying you’re fundamentally wrong. Just that it is not yet practical in this space. That alone will greatly hamper long term adoption. Incrementalism has been shown to be the best way to create change.
Also I think your cost differential is wildly inaccurate. Just looking up power equivalent electric motors. They are roughly two to three times more expensive than the gas motor currently being offered. Along with that it is likely to now need water cooling. As for the controllers and sensors they might not need radically different but they do need to be radically more robust. A little quick math shows that a commercial grade mower would have somewhere between 800 and 1200 hours put on it in a summer. Where a consumer mower is going to get less than a hundred. To do this the components have to have much higher duty cycles, a larger margin to failure and greater R&D to make sure that components can handle the extra hours and a greater coverage of edge cases. Commercial and industrial equipment is not more expensive because it is significantly more capable it’s more expensive because it is significantly more reliable. I could easily see an all electric commercial grade mower costing several thousand dollars more.
I have nothing against electrification it’s probably a good solution for many things. Fundamentally though it cannot be driven by it being the right thing. Sadly that will just never work. It will happen faster and more effectively if it is driven by economics. I don’t think the economics of electric commercial mowers is viable right now. I do think getting people’s toes wet with advanced systems that can easily be electrified later will in the long run be more effective.
I remember placing some large equipment in China some decades ago. There was a crane onsite but instead of using it the Chinese insisted on using many men with bamboo poles. We thought it was odd and hilarious that they had to do such make-work. Now here we are. This is why I litter and don’t put my shopping cart away. People need jobs.
…And now with even more people lining up for those jobs because others have been taken by automation. That and in order to make a living you need to do at least two jobs per household.
This doesn’t allow for any time or energy to skill up into anything else and forces a positive feedback loop in keeping people in this bracket.
Edit: I’ve just read through some of your other comments and I want to say something about post scarcity. We can definitely approximate what will happen in the distant future by looking at current and past trends. Human nature is the constant.
We can look at how many unskilled jobs are created as a result of automation. From what I can see, the number of unskilled jobs created from automation is in the negative, meaning that less unskilled jobs are created from automation.
What systems are put in place for those without jobs? The trend is abandonment or exploitation. We’re currently in a glut of job seekers far exceeding jobs available both in skilled and unskilled areas.
But I digress… This was originally about an automated lawnmower being mildly interesting, which it is.
Sometimes its the only job available. The company with the contract to mow, do you think they now pocket the difference? Because thats what will tend to happen with automation.
Okay, so? Change what you do. Progress always does that. Window knockers lost jobs, miners lost jobs, now it is time for mowers. Which most likely won’t happen anyways since it’ll be the companies that own the robots.
So there will be a different system once there are no jobs to do and people can do whatever the fuck they want. The reality is you are thinking of something that won’t happen for the next 2 centuries at least. There might be jobs that won’t ever be automatized. Right now, a single robot was mowing a park. Somehow from this we’ve jumped to “robot is replacing mowing” - to which the logical answer is “so use robots for mowing and find a job that is still needed”. The next jump to “nobody gets jobs” is a way bigger jump than the previous one and nothing that any of us needs to worry about.
Yeah, and people in the 50s thought there will be flying cars in the year 2000. The tech isn’t there yet and is approaching physical limits. Even if, being scared of “I won’t need to work anymore” is silly.
Somebody gained a job programming and servicing that mow-bot; maybe even a whole team. Maybe the original driver wrote the path and manages it now.
I get the sentiment, and agree that there’s value in keeping labor jobs reserved for people who need them, but using automation isn’t inherently evil.
When my company moved our production operations to automatic lines and robots, they promoted everyone to machine operators, taught new skills, and paid out more. It may not be the way every company handles the change, but it can be done, and it’s a better path forward than forcing people to accept a life of hard labor.
Nah, the guy was still there. He had to bring the robot to the place where it had to mow the lawn and he was observing it to make sure it didn’t fuck up. Plus, I’m sure he still had to do stuff like weed whacking, so his job is safe for the time being.
It doesn’t go into detail about how smart it is. It does say “drive by wire” but also say autonomous. I am pretty certain it is not meant to be used unattended.
I understand that their are autonomous mowers. I watch Hank the Tank. I just didn’t think this one was. Apparently it is largely autonomous but also has a remote.
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