Robotic lawn mower

Part of a series on
Automation
Automation in general
Banking Building Home Highway system Laboratory Library Broadcast Mix Pool cleaner Pop music Reasoning Semi-automation Telephone Attendant Switchboard Teller machine Vehicular Vending machine
Robotics and robots
Domestic Vacuum cleaner Roomba Lawn mower Guided vehicle Industrial Paint ODD
Impact of automation
Manumation OOL Bias Self-driving cars Technological unemployment Jobless recovery Post-work society Threat
Trade shows and awards
ASP-DAC DAC DATE IEEE Robotics and Automation Award ICCAD
v t e

A robotic lawn mower is an autonomous robot used to cut lawn grass. A typical robotic lawn mower (in particular earlier generation models) requires the user to set up a border wire around the lawn that defines the area to be mowed. The robot uses this wire to locate the boundary of the area to be trimmed and in some cases to locate a recharging dock. Robotic mowers are capable of maintaining up to 100,000 m2 (25 acres) of grass.

Robotic lawn mowers are increasingly sophisticated, are self-docking and some contain rain sensors if necessary, nearly eliminating human interaction. Robotic lawn mowers represented the second largest category of domestic robots used by the end of 2005.

In 2012, the growth of robotic lawn mower sales was 15 times that of the traditional styles.^[1] With the emergence of smart phones some robotic mowers have integrated features within custom apps to adjust settings or scheduled mowing times and frequency, as well as manually control the mower with a digital joystick.^[2]

Modern robotic lawn mowers can contain specialized sensors, allowing them to automatically mow around obstacles or even go to sleep when it starts to rain.^[3][4]

In 2012, the vast majority of robotic lawn mowers tackled the task utilizing a "random" mowing system. Basically the machine bounced around on the lawn until it hit the boundary wire limiting the working area, then changed heading until it hit the wire again.^[5] Depending on the lawn size, this meant machines would be in continuous operation. In late 2012, the Bosch robotic lawn mower "Indego" created a map of the user's garden and then tackled the task in a systematic manner,^[6] similar to the more modern robotic vacuum cleaners.

In recent years, robotic lawn mower manufacturers have learned from Bosch and the mowers have undergone significant advancements in their mowing methods, transitioning from random bouncing to systematic and efficient mowing patterns. By following a predefined pattern, such as a spiral or grid, the robotic mower ensures complete coverage of the lawn while minimizing overlap and missed spots. ^[7] As technology has continued to advance, more companies are now utilizing real-time kinematic (RTK) base station guidance, RTK+, or AI Vision^[8] to eliminate the need for a ground wire to delineate mowing areas.

For non-domestic usage, in the absence of a ground wire, RTK and RTK+ are currently the only GPS technologies that will provide the level of precision required for accurate mowing. ^[9].