The idea of never mowing your lawn again seems very attractive. Two decades ago, if someone told you that a robot would clean your house, you would never believe it. However, today, many of us have those robotic vacuums in our homes and we use them all the time. With the success of vacuum robots, it seems quite simple that the same concept could be applied to the yard. However, we haven’t seen very many successful robots being used as a lawn mower.
The story so far
Robotic lawn mowers are electric and autonomous, they maintain a consistent grass height using the mulching technology by mowing more often and cutting one third of your grass height. According to experts, this is the healthiest way to mow your lawn as random mowing pattern keeps grass healthy and also avoids permanent lawn mower tracks.
When it comes autonomous grass mowers, many companies made robots but later went out of business or stopped selling the robotic lawn mowers. The three main brands of robotic lawn mowers include Lawnbott, Robomow and Husqvarna Automower. You might be surprised to know that even Honda makes robotic lawn mower but very few people bought it. The iRobot company that makes all vacuum cleaners announced that they also had a brand new robotic lawn mower called Terra but it never released to market. The Works also has a product called the Landroid, which is a typical robotic lawn mower that relies on a boundary or perimeter wire to prevent the robot from wandering away. A perimeter wire is the same technology that invisible dog fence uses to make a perimeter for the robot. The installation of perimeter wire is a big turn off for many consumers. If left exposed, the wire can become a hindrance for aerators or lawn rakes so a permanent solution would be to bury the wire but it is a lot of work to undo it in the future. There are no mowers available that are truly wireless and can function without a perimeter wire. This is where Toadi comes in as it is a robotic lawn mower that offers completely wireless experience.
What is Toadi
Thanks to the 4K camera and Artificial Intelligence, Toadi autonomously detects and avoids objects while mowing around your yard without a perimeter cable. That is right, Toadi doesn’t need perimeter cable or GPS, you can simply tell it which areas to mow and which ones to avoid. Toadi usually mows in lines and has the capability to mow borders as well. Toadi is able to tackle a challenging terrain as big as 1.2 acres and can tackle hills with up to 45% incline. Toadi comes with four titanium coated blades that will cut grass at a height of 2.36in or 6cm. You can adjust the mowing height from 1.29in (3.3 cm) to 3.54 inch (9 cm) by replacing the mowing disc. Toadi uses mulching technology as it continuously mows tiny clipping to always keep your grass short. Toadi or any other robotic lawn mowers don’t cut long grass. When Toadi is low on power, ready to go to sleep or when finished mowing, it can dock automatically. Besides object recognition and avoidance, Toaid is also able to detect the weather as it stops mowing and waits for the rain to pass and the ground to dry.
Toadi also doubles as a security robot that is able to see intruders with the night vision camera. When an intruder (whether human, feline or other) is spotted, Toadi will send you a picture of the intruder to your phone. Installation is quite simple as it only requies you to install the charger and the app on your smartphone. Toadi creates a map of your yard by discovering what it looks like. This map is then used to navigate in a smart & efficient way without the help of anyone or anything. This is why a perimeter cable or GPS is not required. Toadi is produced, assembled and tested locally in each country using 3D printer technology. The shell is completely printed out of corn starch with nano coating for protection during all seasons.
Toadi was initially announced during 2019 as a beta product and it has since been improved in three categories. The drive motors have been changed to quieter ones, a more powerful mowing motor has been added and the waterproofing has been improved for a better protection from rain. In addition, Toadi is now able to drive around autonomously with only one camera with 4K resolution.
Pricing and Availability
Toadi is available now for early adopters via Kickstarter for $2287 USD and ships in November 2020. The Toadi robotic lawn mower will ship to certain countries. In the box, you get a Toadi Robot (Mows up to 0.6 acres or 2,400 m²) available in White, Gold or Silver color. For an additional $700, you can get a Toadi with mowing capacity of 1.2 acres or 4200 m². You can add 4G modem and 2x Blade packs to your order as well.
I am officially a tech addict and enjoy providing my views on matters related to this industry. I am always interested in trying out new tech gadgets and I have owned multiple smartphones including the legendary HTC One, SGS2, Nexus 4, iPhone 4, 5S, 6S, XR, Note 9. You can ask me any tech related questions in the comment section or on twitter @hookedNav