Chores, aaargh! Even the word itself chokes me just saying it and taking out the trash, doing home cleaning, the laundry, dishes, and cutting the grass among other boring, tedious domestic chores. Well, you can at now leave at least mowing your lawn to the Terra lawn mower from iRobot.
You might remember iRobot as the company behind the vacuum cleaning robot Roomba, and now it has released a lawn mowing robot Terra. A smart little thing that will have you relax as it takes care of all your lawn mowing headaches.
Though Terra is not the first lawn mowing robot, it is one of the bots that use cutting edge technology within that space. It is interesting to point out that experts predict that the robotic lawn mowing industry will grow to over $2 billion by the year 2022. The lawn mowing robots are also set to increase in sophistication.
iRobot also revealed that they are working on integrating Google Assistant and Alexa into Terra. That means you can speak to your smart speaker while inside the house and direct the lawnmower to move out of the garage and start mowing your lawn. Talk about laziness!
The company is also working on integrating onboard GPS onto the robot, which will give Terra (or rather its future successor) better navigation around your compound.
The Terra robotic lawn mower design
iRobot designed the Terra robot from the ground up to withstand the rough conditions outside your house; designed to survive outside on your yard. It has a round flat body that is hauled around on wheels. The rear wheels come as knobby tires that help the robot navigate through challenging terrain around your yard.
The company vouches that Terra can handle hills and uneven terrain with ease, so you won’t have to keep helping it move around. It is also rugged enough to handle the elements of weather around the year.
While not in action, the robot docks at its home base until it receives orders to move out and start mowing. Though I suppose you can schedule when it moves out and start mowing; for a more autonomous and efficient lawn mowing maintenance routine where you don’t have to trouble your brain to remember more things than it needs to.
iRobot’s technical advantage over competing companies
As mentioned earlier, Terra is by no means a pioneer in the robotic lawn mowing machinery. It is in fact, one of the handful robots out there you can get to lawn your lawn from companies such as Honda Miio and Robomow.
However, iRobot navigation system inside the robot might give Terra an upper hand in terms of competition with other lawn mowing robots. Other robots require boundary wires to keep them from going off-limit areas; wires that act as an electronic fence for the bots.
However, Terra uses wireless beacons to triangulate its position; much like iRobot’s Roombas robotic vacuum cleaner. To teach Terra the boundaries within which it will mow, you will first need to drive the wireless beacons some the ground. Then move Terra around the boundary using a mobile app to enable it to create a digital map of the area. From there, it will stick within those boundaries while doing the mowing autonomously.
