Column: Yardwork got you down? Don't despair there's a robot for that!
As the lawns turn green — and long — thoughts invariably turn to that dreaded chore of mowing. But guess what? There’s a bot for that.
By now we’ve probably all seen robot vacuums. I confess that I’ve been slightly obsessed with them since they first circled into a room — literally 20 years ago. That’s right! Incredibly, the first Roomba went to market in September 2002, which means a whole generation of humans has now grown up thinking robot vacuums are perfectly ordinary.
With a multi-critter household, their lure is undeniable. I keep buying Roombas. They last about a year and shut down — see afore-mentioned dogs and cats and fur, I guess. I had such hope for the last one, which included a bin that automatically emptied “Sage” after she completed her rounds. Sage — there’s something about the circle shape and happy chimes that make people name their robo-vacs — recently decided she would no longer charge. Right now I’m looking the other way and hoping she’ll magically come back to life.
However, as I was studiously looking the other way, I caught a flash of movement on a lawn along Route 6A in Barnstable. Was that a lawnmower robot? Indeed it was! Then my offspring shared a Mashable video entitled “Like a Roomba for your lawn – set it and forget it” showing something called Luba happily patrolling around grass, flower beds, and decks.
Mosquito forecast for Cape Cod?: Think wet weather and yard vigilance.
I decided that a deeper dig might be in order. Turns out Luba is a Kickstarter project from a group called Mammotion, claiming more than 80 patents for a waterproof, autonomous, all-terrain grass cutter. As of this writing in late May it has about a month remaining in the current campaign; 611 people have plopped down $1,299 for an early model with another 600 or so previously pledging toward a purchase in a prior round. It sets its eventual market price at $2,400.
Luba might have some sexy additions, but enough other robotic mowers fill the market that review sites can produce “10 Best” in category stories. While I focused on inside fur, apparently the mower industry took a laser beam to lawns. Brands like Worx, Husqvarna, Robomow, Gardena and Greenworks bring lawn levelers at prices ranging from $500 to $5,000.
Belated tribute: Centuries-old town of Chatham gets new monument commemorating the Revolutionary War
I had to see what a $5,000 mower looked like. I mean, I’ve spent $5,000 on used cars, but the specs were never like this:
“Designed for rough terrain and steep hills, the Husqvarna Automower 435X AWD is loaded with features including all-wheel drive, Bluetooth, cellular, and GPS technologies, a pivoting rear end, and an ultra-quiet battery-powered motor.”
Seriously, I’m ready to take a road trip in this baby!
Robot lawnmowers join a host of other robots in our yards, each vying to free our time for outside pursuits. Robot pool cleaners? You bet. Dolphin, Intex, Kokido, Hayward, Aquibot, Paxcess, Penair, Betta, and probably many more crawl out there right now, sucking up leaves and debris and making your summer splash all shiny clean.
Curious Cape Cod: A hike to get away from it all this summer
Gutters? Got you there too. iRobot brings a whole series of robots to tackle this mucky task.
Does your McMansion or compound need security? SMP Robotics could be on the job with its automatic movement control system, which appears to be an expandable army of ‘droids that patrol, detect and transmit. Yeah, probably not suitable for small Cape cottages — but this whole category of industry-level security and outdoor maintenance robots allows safer work in dangerous work environments. Why risk human life in a power plant, for example, when a robot can do the job?
Court case: Cape Cod Baseball League files lawsuit against Cuffy's
A host of companies want to take on the outdoor tasks of industry. For example, The Kobi Company claims to be building a full suite of outdoor repetitive task robots that can do anything from mowing to gathering errant golf balls. Its marketing copy brings a nice sense of aspiration for the challenges and needs — the work can be difficult, repetitive, and hard to staff — but little in the line of rolling solutions.
We dream of robots doing our drudgery, but I think “drudgery” includes a lot of human skills we take for granted. My Roombas always seem to need my human eye to nudge them an inch sideways to land on their docks. For savage entertainment, read the many blogs about pet owners, Roombas, and “puppy accidents.” I can’t imagine a robo-lawnmower delicately sidestepping wild daisies on the lawn. Can a robo-pool cleaner spot the lost earring and fetch it safely to land?
End of an era: Joanne Guertin retiring, closing Robert E. Guertin Jeweler in Sandwich after 50 years
The appeal of a fleet of helper robots makes sense, but I think the reality says that even 20 years after robo-vacuums, we’re still in an early adopters market for chore-beating bots. But still, I’m curious. I suspect early washing machines had the same limitations, but today no one would choose weekly hand-washing over tossing a load in the machine.
Sometimes my overactive imagination pictures a future where every home comes with a little robot accessory shed that houses a fleet of robo-pals. Or maybe one robot that can mow, weed, trim, shovel snow and rake leaves. I’ll name it and probably will come to rely on it and shake my head at how way back in 2022 people ever so quaintly trimmed yards by hand.
Teresa Martin of Eastham lives, breathes and writes about the intersection of technology, business and humanity. You can reach her at teresa@capeeyes.com.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod: Robo-lawnmowers, Roombas and other robots handle chores
