A lawn is nothing less than pride for their owners. But, it can only remain so if you take care of the grasses and keep weeds away from them. It might be a challenge, especially if you don’t have the right set of tools. Today, we will talk about robotic mowers that can maintain your lawn and keep it healthy throughout the year that also without much input.
The first autonomous mower was made available by Husqvarna in 1995. Today’s market has robotic mower from many other reliable brands like Honda, Flymo and Bosch. You can purchase an entry-level automatic mower at a price range of around £400 to £650. An option like Flymo 1200 R is suitable for small or medium-sized areas. However, if you need a high-end mower that can tackle lots of trees, flower beds, or slopes that can negotiate its movement, then you need to spend more than £1000.
How does a robot mower work?
An auto mower works according to an electric perimeter wire, which you have to install along the fences or the boundary of an area. Surround the trees or flower beds using the same border wire, so that the mower can ignore them easily. You can do it without taking any external help. If you are a beginner, then you should contact professionals.
None of these mowers is lethal for a user or surrounding items. Still, most of the autonomous grass cutters come with automatic shutdown once they hit something. Some of them also have an alarm system that activates if the machine collides with an object. Then, there are collision sensors that help a mower to turn around once it engages with something.
Restricted by the boundary wire, an autonomous mower follows a random-mow mapping system to navigate. When it moves towards the wire, the machine changes its path. There are advanced robots that use radar sensors or 360-degree lasers to move. Such a mower can spot and avoid obstacles and can also detect incomings.
We will talk about the random-mow system first because it’s what most of the automatic mower uses under the hood. As we stated earlier, a mower working with such mechanism changes the path once it changes it hits anything. The machine covers your lawn and automatically reaches back to its charging dock once the battery is low. Do not expect s robot mower to cover an entire area in one sitting, because it will continue to mow the same region until and unless the grasses are at the set length.
Talking about some of the high-end versions, they use an improved grid-mow pattern. The mower covers an entire lawn while avoiding all the obstacles, but reaches all the areas. Then there are machines with inbuilt GPS, wherein you can set specific mowing pattern or path.
Programming and security
To program any of the autonomous mowers, you can either use its onboard control panel or a smartphone app (if it supports any). Modern robotic grass cutters have several safety features including PIN code activation and alarm system that activates when someone tries to use it without entering any code. Some of them can also trigger the alarm in case if you lift them from the ground. Mowers with GPS functionality can even send its location to your smartphone, in case of theft.
Advantages of a robot mower
- Convenience: The first and foremost advantage of an autonomous mower is convenience. You don’t have to interfere much while it’s working. Moreover, the machine will find its way even if the battery is low.
- Fast and efficient: Such mowers provide you with accurate cutting results that also without taking much time. They can deal with narrow paths, obstacles and odd shaped lawns. There is a mechanism wherein a robot mower generates more power while moving over slopes.
- Low noise levels: Almost all the robotic mowers are powered by batter and operates on an electric mower. So, none of them is loud enough to disturb your family members or neighbours.
- Organic fertilization: Robotic mowers cut often and hence eliminates any moss and fertilize the lawn with resulting small grass pieces. These tiny pieces decompose within some time and supply nitrogen and moisture to the soil bed.
Takeaways
An automatic mower is a time saver for professionals who cannot spend much time under the sky. So, if you are looking for something that can give you convenient lawn maintenance, then try a robotic grass cutter.