Feel too hot and lazy to mow the lawn in the late-summer heat? Why not let Miimo -- the first entry in the home robotics market from Honda -- do it for you.
Miimo
is a robotic lawnmower that works via electronic sensors to continuously cut grass and safely navigate slopes and obstacles, according to the company, which for 10 years has developed an intelligent humanoid robot called ASIMO. ASIMO, which walks and talks and has been lauded for its innovation, is less than practical for everyday use and is not commercially available.
Miimo, on the other hand, is designed for the home consumer market, looking and performing somewhat like iRobot’s Roomba robotic vacuum and aimed at helping make a common task easier, safer, and more environmentally friendly. Miimo will join existing robotic lawnmowers like Robomow and Husqvarna’s Auto Mower in the European market early next year, with release in the US sometime thereafter.
Honda has entered the home robotics market with Miimo, a robotic lawn mower that communicates electronically with a perimeter wire to stay within the confines of a lawn or patch of grass. It cuts continuously with a range of settings and blade heights according to user preference. (Source: Honda)
Miimo works by communicating with an electronic signal in a perimeter wire around a lawn or a patch of grass, navigating the area to be groomed and cutting just 2mm to 3mm of grass at a time. By cutting in this way, the robot creates grass clippings so small that rather than be collected, they are spread across the lawn to eventually break down as a natural fertilizer, according to Honda.
Miimo has three blades that Honda said it designed to sustain minimal damage if they come into contact with sharp or hard objects in the grass. Rather than shatter on impact, they bend, which means broken blade shards won’t be left on the lawn. The robot also has so-called “bump” sensors that detect whether it comes into contact with an object, activating a sensor that will turn and move the robot away from the impact point.
Users can adjust the robot’s blade height between 20mm and 60mm depending on preference, as well as choose from three modes of operation -- random, directional, or mixed. In the first mode, the robot mows the lawn without a specific pattern, while the second mode features a back-and-forth movement with increased speed. In mixed mode, the robot employs both random and directional methods to cut grass, according to Honda.
The robot also has the ability to ascend slopes and will automatically reduce its wheel speed if its hits a patch of thick or long grass or rough terrain. Additionally, Honda has designed Miimo with built-in safety sensors that will activate if the robot leaves the ground. If this happens, the mower will shut down completely, sound an alarm, and cannot start again until a user enters the proper PIN.
Miimo also features a self-charging lithium-ion battery that monitors its power level and autonomously returns to its docking station when it needs recharging. As with other robotic mowers, this type of power minimizes environmental impact, reducing emissions that come with gasoline-driven lawnmowers, as well as reducing noise pollution.
I can see thousands of neighborhoods transformed, with kids and parents lolling around on Saturday afternoons while Mimo tends to the grass cutting. How's a kid suppose to earn a little extra pocket money these days with this kind of innovation? Seriously, this is very cool and a great modern convenience. We have an electric fence for my dog and I imagine the perimeter mentioned functions similarly via wireless radio signals.
I saw this article about the Miimo, and it says the price point is about $2600.00. With a price like that, it will be a while before we see neighborhoods transformed by roving bands of robotic mowers. From a liability standpoint, it's probably okay for the back yard, but leaving something like this running around unattended in the front yard is just asking for trouble. I'll stick my my traditional mower.
This is a great convenience. I wonder if having it automatically return to its docking station to charge is just too much.
Seriously, this is a chore that many would rather not deal with. In our area this means that we have lots of lawn services. I do my own with a John Deere rising mower. Actually, I kind of like it. This year we have not had to do it very much, so that might be why.
I wonder, can this be set on a schedule so that you don't even have to be there. That would be great for people who travel a lot.
Great idea. Perhaps the significant aspect of this product news is Honda's involvement. This is a big step in consumer robotics. We may see additional Honda products using the basic technology in the mower. I can't imagine Honda would do a one-off robotic product. It will be fun to see what comes out going forward.
The value of it would be to have it on a schedule, so it can keep cutting when you are not there.
I wonder how it would perform in the fall with leaves falling on the lawn. If it can run continuously (minus the recharging time), it could shred all the leaves back into the lawn as they fall - that time of the year the grass is not growing much anyway. This would be a great way to feed the lawn.
Yes the value I get from my robomower is I get 15 cuts per month out of it, and thus perfect lawn all the time. Robomower's version are all way less costly than this Honda unit and the cut height is adjustable to much better lengths. It does kill batteries though about every 3 years, and they cost $150 to replace.
I got my robomower out of chicago off Kijiji for $450. A steal even if I do live in western Canada and had to ship it haha! Mine is model RL1000 which was the largest model they had at the time. They have a new model called RL2000 which I've been told is exactly the same although I'm not 100% sure then why they would change the model#. IF you look hard enough there are used mowers out there and they are so over built that they never fail. Parts are avaialble though......
Hi Rob. It does what they call a roboscan and follows the wire around the edge of the yard. From what I can tell it uses a compass, since it doesnt have GPS, and then calculates dimensions of the yard. It then employs a special piece of software that tells it the best way to cut the lawn. SInce it cant track perfectly straight, they sue a cross hatch style cut pattern cutting one diagonal direction with 5-6 spaces between, then when it gets to the end of the lawn it turns at 90 degrees to the orignal cuts and does the same thing. It changes its entry point every time it leaves the perimeter from day to day so that the pattern is not the same. On my .5 acres if you were to leave the grass to get very long, you would notice that the mower misses about 5% of the lawn leaving little clumps the size of a baseball here and there. The next time it goes out, it will usually get all those spots. Once regular cutting begins the missed spots are never long enough to notice so this tenchique seems towork well. As I stated earlier my yard always looks like a golf course :)
You can manually take control of the mower with a simple remote on top if you want to cut areas outside the perimter wire or strange areas it cant normally get to. You can also drive from one zone to another if you have multiple unattached cut areas (back yard vs front yard)
My mower goes out every couple days while we sleep at night and takes about 2-3 hrs to do its job. Its very quiet. When I do allow it out on weekends during the day so I can watch it, many of the neighbours gather round to watch also lol. We have also had some looky loos watch from the street with much excitement. Their comments are usually quite humorous. My robomower docks behind my house so that noone can see it on display (theft). I have considered building a house for it to drive into that protects it, but I live in such a remote area amongst farms that I'm not concerned about neighbours taking it and noone really messes around in our neighbourhood (the farmers tend to have guns lol). If I lives in a downtown area, I would probably stick to locking it up and just manuually setting it free every couple days. Its just a simple push the go butto nand it starts cutting.
Good information, RW. Does it park itself when it has complete its rounds. Can you program it to awake every few days (say if you're on vacation)? How does it do in the rain (which could happen while you're sleeping).
Yes when it finishes it follows the perimeter wire which runs under its dock. When it docks it hits two paddles which recharge the batteries.
It is fully programmable to go out and cut whenever you like. Any day any time. Mine goes out Monday, wednesday, friday at 2am by schedule, and then I manualy let it out once over the weekend as well during the day just to watch it run as its very ammusing lol.
It doesn't do well in the rain if you have hills as the tires slip. It has a rain sensor though that you can enable or disable. I enable the sensor since I have hills which means if it rains it doesnt go out that day. If you had a flat yard it would do just fine. The clippings it generates are so tiny that you dont end up clogging the mower up like an ordinary mower would after rain.
RW, the rain sensor and the automatic re-charging sound like great additional features. It will be interesting to see if this market takes off. With Honda's high price tag, it sounds like there is plenty of room for competition.
This looks similar to a robo-mower that was introduced by a company called Friendly Robotics in 2006. At the time, the engineers at Friendly Robotics believed the Robo-Mower would become nearly as ubiquitous as the garage door opener.
I haven't heard whether Friendly Robotics is still selling Robo-Mowers, Rob. I see they still have a web site, but they seem to have disappeared. There's an old saying that when it comes to innovation, it's better to be second, rather than first. That saying may apply here.
Thanks for the link, Rob. I had no idea there were so many companies making robo-mowers. It's interesting to see how many are using lithium batteries. As I recall, the Friendly Robotics mower would dock itself and re-charge on its own. So what's the purpose of an expensive lithium battery? Is it for bigger lawns?
Reading these comments is as interesting as reading the article. I never knew there were so many robo mowers out there. Makes me wonder why I've never seen one patrolling a neighbor's yard!
Good questions, Chuck. If the robot can dock itself when it needs to be recharged, it could get by with a less aggressive battery. Could be the self-docking system is a recent innovation.
A lawn mower that puts me out of a Saturday job. OK!
But we all know what kind of power it takes to cut grass, so will it be recharging every five minutes? And we all know all yards are not rectangles, can it really go around everything and not miss patches? And we all know if we get one of these our wives will just find something else for us to do instead of watching the game, so this must have been invented by a single guy who thinks us married guys will actually benefit. Sorry, dude! This won't help!
Warren, if this contraption works like the roving vacuum, it may indeed be able to handle odd-shaped lawns with ease. I think this would be the perfect device for solar power since it lives out in the sunshine. You're not going to mow when it rains at any rate.
Rob--that's perfect! If this wre solar pwered, it would be more effective and competitive in the market. At a cost of about $3,000, it would need something to give it an advantage. Any lawn that could use this would be very large and would have to be cut several times a week. Solar power makes sense here.
As a skeptic/contrarian/curmudgeon/naysayer/etc, I can see a bunch of dark edges. Like if you have a team of these, you might want to invest in some security to keep your $3000 toys from running off with the neighbor kids! That said (and a lot of stuff unsaid), I have to admit that this little product delights me. Probably not good for my hilly lawn. Probably only good for golf greens, etc... I'd still love to see one in action. :-) And as we creep toward the enlightened Buck Rogers future (where they promised us jet packs!), it's cool, expensive, slightly-useful toys like this one that will pave the way. Sure it's based on the Roomba, and sure they'll probably have a lawsuit or two to deal with. But it's PLENTY COOL. Made me think out of the box a little. What about a Wallba, a robot that creeps over your walls and gradually paints them, eliminating ANOTHER chore that nobody likes doing but everybody wants done!
in the south: $40/cut,4x month, 12 months - 5 years - that's $9,600...
If you don't live in the south: 3 months of 4 cuts per month ($480), 5 months of 2 cuts per month ($400) and 4 months of no cutting (winter)--> $880/year, $3,000 in 3.4 years.
I hear you, Rich. Lots of opportunity for scares--entertaining some, and others, potentially scary. Now what about one of these guys for racking up the leaves now that we're hitting fall season, or spreading mulch, for that matter. Now that would really be a technological advance and would sign me up for the little guy ASAP.
I agree, Nadine. The beauty of solar power here is that on rainy days -- when the solar power would be weak -- you wouldn't be mowing your lawn anyway. You're right about the cost making this a tool only for very large lawns. But if this catches on, we'll see competition and the price will come down.
I think I would need a couple of these little guys to mow my entire yard, but the convenience and cool-factor may just be worth it.
20-60mm is not tall enough, though. Grass should be cut long in order to help the grass self-protect from drought and weeds. I usually mow to around 3-4 inches..80-100mm because I don't have the sprinkler system or pockets deep enough to water my yard.
I imagine that the first market penetration in the U.S. for these may be golf courses, and other properties with owners who put a very high value on perfectly manicured and well-watered grass.
I wonder which is cheaper, a team of Miimo's or a team of human lawn cutters? For those in the latter category, (and given the pricepoints below) the next few years may provide a window to update skillsets and/or resumes.
Honda announced that Miimo robotic mower will be available in two models, 300 and 500, offering a maximum perimeter cut of 300m and 500m respectively. Honda Miimo 500 will mow up to a total lawn size of 3,000 square meters, around half the size of a typical football pitch, making it suitable for a wide variety of gardens.
Honda Miimo will be manufactured by Honda France Manufacturing in Orlean, and it will be available from Honda Authorized Dealers across Europe in early 2013 for prices ranging between $2,600 and $3,000, depending on options. While it may seem a lot for regular lazy people, it is competitive to other already established names in this niche.
They also plan to offer a service which comes along much more expensive robotic lawn mowers, and that their model for Honda Lawn & Garden Authorized Dealers. It will be sold as a full service package, where a dealer helps in installation of the system and its tinkering to suit particular needs of the client.
They install the docking station, which acts as the charging point and signal generator, and a boundary wire which defines the mowing area. Honda Miimo is then programmed to cut to a schedule convenient to the customer, via its inbuilt timer and calendar. At the end of the season, Honda Authorized Dealer collects it for winter maintenance.
I agree on the cutting height - see my other post.
I do not have a very large yard - about 1/3 acre, and I pay $120/month for yard service. Another offer I had received was $180/month. This does include some clipping of bushes, removal of dead palm branches, etc... assumin 80% of the work is the lawn cutting, based on time, that is $96/month, $1,152/year (no dormant season for the grass in Florida).
(The Lawn Advisor . com has $20-$40/cut for a 1/2 acre lawn... 1 cut per week would be $80-$160/month, so my $96 is somewhere in-between).
Not including electricity, maintenance of the mower, etc... it would take 2.25 years to pay back the mower. Based on Honda's reliability, this is not an outrageous life, but then the life of the batteries and blades is unknown, plus the cost of installing the perimeter wires.
Golf courses - not sure if they would want to invest in setting up the perimeters for all the greens... they have specific areas that get cut at different heights... and I can imagine an army of mowing robots stuck in the bunkers waiting to be saved.
You didn't read the part where, as soon as it leaves the ground it shuts down and cannot be re-started without a PIN entry? Just like the fancy car radios which are no longer being stolen because they self-disable when removed from the dash.
Conceptually, of course, it's an attractive notion.... pragmatically, however, I doubt that I can endorse it. I would have serious concerns, regardless of sophistication of object detection logic, related to leaving an unattended object with whirling blades roving unsupervised in my yard. I doubt that my homeowners insurance agent would approve either. (I would certainly have to bring the dog inside!) Beyond the issues of liability, I seriously doubt that any algorithm (at least none that I can imagine - been an embedded programmer for 30 years...) would successfully navigate and attend to the nuances of yard-flush flower beds, irregularly shaped swimming pool aprons, etc.
I suspect I would spend a lot of time mopping up all of the missed areas and explaining to my wife where the tulips have gone!
roThe article says that the robot works by a 'perimeter wire', which I take to mean that you will be implanting a wire in the ground around the area you want to be mowed, so your tulips are safe (unless you want them gone). This gives rise to the question, what about small circular flower areas within a lawn? Can you put a perimeter wire around the whole area and then around every area with flowers within the large perimeter? At which point will this little toe-clippiing machine get confused?
Since it is being manufactured in France, it might be expedient to wait a while to buy one just to get one that works. On the positive side, it wasn't designed in France (I hope).
Astroturf is green all year round. No maintenance. No need for $2600 robot mower. You don't have to hear whining from your kid because you will never ask (tell) him or her to mow or weed. The city water conservationists will be happy as well. How can you top that?
There is a certain coolness factor in owning a lawn mowing robot. Certainly, you could program it to chase the cats and dogs off your property for obvious reasons.
While I fathom many fun possibilities, I do not see that this can be left unmonitored in a front yard in America. In Japan no problem. But in America there is the theft of an expensive item almost certain for drug or video game money. And then there would be the certain law suit filed for some intriqued stranger who walks onto your lawn uninvited and is injured. Sorry, only in America can progress be so detoured by selfcentered idiots.
After I posted I had a serious thought - adding a camera (with sound) that would send images to a server in the house might actually be useful. A couple sensors could be added that would help the mower 'patrol', detect, and observe moving people/animals.
It would also help identify the neighborhood kid that steals your expensive mower. Good luck getting it back in one piece.
Or you can sit in a lawn chair with a beer in one hand and a paint gun in the other and use the moving mower (on 'random' mode) as a target... I wonder if that would be considered an 'impact' - like hitting an object - and make it turn around... I'm sure someone will post it on You Tube.
You would have to put one of those spring loaded chickens on the top of it to make a proper paint-ball (bb) gun target.
But $3000? I pay a guy $50 a cut to do my 1/2 acre lot. He does a good job, I don't have to install a perimeter fence to keep him "in bounds", and he takes liability if anyone gets hurt. This is clearly a solution looking for a problem.
Bonus, it's made in France! France made our subway system (here in D.C.) It's only killed a few dozen people in the last year or so. So how bad could a little, French made lawn mower really be?
This sounds a LOT more usefull than the one in an earlier article that replaced a doctor. My question is whether it will cut the 12" weeds/grass that cover my yard?
I would pay almost anything to not have to cut the grass/weeds ever again.
May be you could teach it to attack any neighborhood kids that wander into your yard. If it ground them up into small enough pieces it wouldn't be detectable.
I'm waiting for the Lawn Mowing software update for ASIMO. Then he can push my existing mower around. In the meantime I'll be reloading some 12 gauge with rock salt for the security system.
Maybe the mower could double as a beer tender for those thirsty souls sitting in the shade watching it mow. There are many more creative things it could do as well with other attachments. Paint the fence, wash the driveway, fetch the paper, etc...
The recommended cutting height for northern US grasses is 2" (50mm) minimum, 3" (76mm) preferred. Some southern grasses do get cut a little shorter (1"-1.5" for Bermuda, 1.5"-2" for zoysia; 3" for St. Augustine and tall fescue). So the range proposed by Honda is not realistic; cutting the grass shorter promotes the growth of weeds, which most people happily treat with chemical fertilizers that go down in the water supply and kill the fauna in the process. So, while using a battery powered mower is better for the environment than a conventional mower, the claim that this 'minimizes environmental impact' is counteracted by an improper cutting height (unless you have a golf course putting green). The fact that it mulches the grass cuttings is a good thing, though, as that would feed the lawn... of course it will pulverise the dog poop at the same time, which will feed the lawn as well!
There's nothing ground breaking here. Robomow has had a robot mower for many years exactly the same as this and in fact I own one. My wife and I couldn't imagine life without it. It mows the lawn every second day all on its own at night while noone is around, docks itself afterwards, re-charges automatically, then goes out two days later again on its own. My lawn always looks like a golf course, and since its running on electricity is far cleaner than a lawn mower gas engine (one of the worst polluters out there). Robomower installs proximity sensors for child/animal detection, as well as bumpers for items left on the lawn and a rain sensor so it doesnt get stuck out on wet grass. Ive had mine for 2 years to cut my 1/2 acre lawn, and am looking for another for my other smaller section of lawn. You can buy these used for around $500-$1000 and you wont believe the satisfaction it brings and the productivity since you can do something else while it cuts the lawn like go for a hike or bike ride and enjoy the excercise you are doing. It saves me hours per week. They also mulch the lawn, and since they do it so often, there is no grass clippings laying about on the lawn and the lawn stays much healthier since you are not removing all the nutrients. Some people say "you are lazy". I dont look at it as lazy, I look at it as an opportunity to do something else while the lawn gets cut for me.
Very interesting indeed. But the cost is a big deal also. It takes as long to unroll the cord of my electric lawnmower as it doesto mow the lawn. So I do wonder about the value provided to me by an automated mowwer. For a 5 acre lawn it could make sense, but for a really small lawn even a powered mower is a stretch. Every once in a while though, it seems that it might be handy to have some robot do the mowing, mostly when the weather is really hot.
I do not care for most of the chores associated with being a home owner, but mowing the grass is a good excuse to get out of the house and lose the blues of the day while pondering the meaning of life. I agree with Warren's early post that this just presents an opening for my wife to find more chores. If someone really wants to create a robot to do really good things for a homeowner, make one that scrapes and then paints the window frames that are in need of both. How about one that cleans my gutters or picks up after the dog? But leave my grass alone. Same with shoveling snow. They are both good exercise and leave me with a feeling of accomplishment. Just goes to show what a mundane life I lead.
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