[CES 2009] SmartMow Robot Mower
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 26 of January , 2009 at 3:19 am
We wrote about SmartMow last December when it was up for pre-order (which is still is), and I stopped by the SmartMow booth at CES to take a look at the mower in person. Just to recap, SmartMow is a battery powered fully automatic robot lawnmower. It’ll trundle around your lawn in a random pattern for 2-3 hours per charge, and like pretty much every other robotic mower out there, depends on an edge wire to keep it from running away. SmartMow uses three smaller, faster blades to cut your grass instead of one big one, which lets it mulch the grass as it cuts, feeding your lawn and making sure that you don’t have to buy another robot to rake up all that cut grass for you.
There are some other interesting features we learned about at the SmartMow booth… For example, SmartMow won’t start without an RFID key. It’s also got a little remote control, and infrared proximity detectors to make sure it won’t run over your dog (no promises about the garden hose, though). It automatically shuts off if it gets flipped over, and runs for cover if it senses rain. Much like an iRobot Roomba, SmartMow has a “grass detect” where it will spend extra time on patches of thick grass, and if it hasn’t finished mowing when its battery runs out, it’ll go back to its recharging dock and then come back out again when it’s full. All in all, sounds like a nicely hands-off system to me.
SmartMow is currently on pre-order for March delivery for $749. If that seems like a lot, it’s estimated (by SmartMow themselves, but still) that the robot will save you nearly $400 in lawn care costs in just the first year you own it. If you’re not satisfied with that, SmartMow is also working on a dev kit that’ll let you put together your own mower based on the SmartMow base, kinda like an iRobot Create. At first I was thinking lasers, but here’s a better idea: how about one of those waterjet cutting systems? Cut and water your lawn at the same time! It’s genius!
[ SmartMow ]
Comments (2)
Category: Consumer
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Comment by Ed Averill
Made Wednesday, 28 of January , 2009 at 2:48 pm
I have a fully-enclosed back yard. Maintaining an edge wire is a pain, and seems unnecessary for completely enclosed areas. Do any of these things allow taking advantage of that?
Comment by Mike
Made Tuesday, 31 of March , 2009 at 9:18 pm
It won’t matter soon… :)
Also, pre-order is over.