I am currently in the middle of testing my first robotic lawn mower and I am a shell of the home technology reviewer I used to be. It’s been to say it polite, a humble journey, and I’m not even at the end of it yet.
When I was offered my first Lawnbot, I assumed it would be about a similar experience like testing the best robot vacuum of the day. I’ve been reviewing them for about a year now, and for the most part it has been a Doddle to get them a Doddle: Connect your dock, spend five minutes on a ‘quick mapping’ and you’re done. There are things you can do to customize the setup and improve performance, but they are not important. You don’t have to be a technical rush to control it.
The requirements of robot gauges and robotic wacuum are similar: Both have to navigate logically over an area that covers all the earth and avoid obstacles, and then find its way back to their charge dock. However, it turns out that a Lawnbot is not just an outdoor Robovac with some added razor blade; The big, crucial difference is in the navigation process. Virtually the majority of robot wacuum is navigating using Lidar, while robotic lawn mowers are dependent on satellites.
The model I undergo is a mammoth Yuka mini and it uses predominantly GPS and an RTK receiver for navigation. While it will not be exactly the same for all models – older bots can still use a limit wire, and some of the very best models that the EUFY E15 robot lawnmower is dependent on cameras and do not need an RTK receiver – it is a very common category of Lawnbot, so my experience here will apply to a variety of models from different brands.
I haven’t quite got everything to work as I want it yet, but I’ve learned some important lessons so far. Here are some important things to know before you go on your own Lawnbot -trip
1. RTK -receiver placement is key
Most robotic lawns, including my review model, come with an RTK receiver. This is an important part of how lawn navigates without limit wires – it essentially helps adjust satellite positioning data, so it is correct within a few centimeters rather than a few meters. After all, that kind of margin can be the difference between a lawn and the center of the driveway or flower bed.
A RTK receiver is shaped like the top of a large sponge, with an antenna that protrudes from its base. Yuka’s instructions told me that this could be mounted on a rod and stuck in the lawn or attached to the side of my house. Option One seemed by far the easiest – not least because I tested at home with my parents’ home, and my dad is holding a particularly close protection of his power tools and would not take kind of new holes that appear in the side of his house.
Unfortunately, option is the superior choice if you want your lawn to function effectively. The RTK receiver depends on a direct line of sight of a series of satellites in the sky. This means that it must be in a high, fixed position with a broad overview of the sky in a variety of directions, without things like trees and structures that threaten it.
While attaching the RTK receiver to your home (or in my case, the wooden side of a freestanding garage) is a bit of a job that it is more difficult to put it in the lawn than it originally looks. The recipient requires a power source that limits where it can go, and you also need to be sure that bot is not cut over his own power cable when in place.
2. Your fee dock needs a good, fixed position
Separately from the RTK recipient, Lawnbot has a charging dock, and this is where it returns to charge its batteries. It is surprisingly difficult to find a good, permanent place for the fee to live.
Earth should be flat and hard. It must be in a position from which the lawn can access the pieces of grass that require cutting. It must be relatively close to an outlet and placed so that it does not cut its own charging cable. It may not have to be within reach of the house Wi-Fi (I am still investigating this part). And because Bot must have a direct line of vision for at least some satellites while it is rooted, it cannot go under a shelter or hidden away between structures. Long story short, I haven’t yet found everywhere that works in my test farm.
For starters, I tried the charging station in a concrete area by the back door, but at this place the robot still told me that the dock had moved and it couldn’t find its way back to it. I think it is because on concrete it is impossible (or at least difficult) to attach the charging station to the ground, and the dock changed a bit when the lawn was remote controlled / placed in and out.
3. Shipments are full of unexpected obstacles
Since the start of my installation process, I have been affected by how many unexpected obstacles have made known. Lawnbot has been tangled into the grid over fruit plants. It digs itself in a ditch when asked to get your way over a road with – admittedly quite deep – pebbles. The less accurate mapping and positioning also has knock-on effects: There is a grassy road that may be two lawn wide that my review model refuses to cut because it is too narrow. I have also had to leave a thick border along the edge of a low creek running along the side of the farm, for fear that Lawnbot might be trying to take a dip.
None of these things are particularly surprising and I don’t think they represent failures from the lawn. But I would encourage you to take a moment to consider the layout of your farm and what may pose a challenge before buying one of these.
Is it worth it?
At the time of writing, I have come to the point where Lawnbot fortunately cuts two unusually shaped lawn areas in my test farm, but it does not return to its dock without help. Even coming so far has been a challenge and I would be lying if I said I hadn’t considered chuck it into the neighbor’s pond and finish it. But at this point, I actually feel quite positive about the technology.
You can see, the mammoth just does such a good job of mowing the lawn. The results are neat and it does not miss stains and it will even amle up and down relatively steep slopes without complaining. It’s so much less effort than doing it manually. I don’t even mind having to remote it over the narrow strips that it refuses to map because it’s still something I can do from my phone while sitting on a tire chair.
If I can find a place for dock to live, then I don’t have to remove control or carry bot to and from its base, I’m very happy with it actually. And maybe at the time I will forget the pain of getting it set up.
