Yard-care startup Lymow Technology is showing off its first robot lawnmower at CES, and it’s an impressive debut. The Lymow One TK18000 can cut a 21-inch-wide swath of grass on parcels as large as two acres. And thanks to its tank-like treads and front-mounted, articulated mowing deck, it can lift its cutting blades and clamber over obstacles up to two inches high.
The Lymow One is outfitted binocular-camera-based VSLAM navigation, which should prevent the bot from rolling over Fido while he’s napping in the grass. VSLAM, in combination with real-time kinematic positioning (RTK, a means of improving GPS measurements), provides accurate navigation down to the centimeter. This also eliminates the need for the user to lay down boundary wires to prevent the mower from wandering off the property or into areas that shouldn’t be mowed.
Users can create mowing schedules with Lymow’s app, which also provides real-time tracking and records a work log. When the mower’s battery runs low, it will automatically return to its base, charge its battery, and then go back to the location where it left off. A rain detection feature will automatically trigger the mower to return to its base in the event of showers. A geofence feature will sound an alarm if the mower is removed from your yard, indicating attempted theft.
Lymow has not yet announced pricing, but says it intends to launch a Kickstarter campaign sometime in the first quarter. We hope to put the Lymow through its paces this summer, along with several other mowers announced at CES this week.
Author: Ed Oswald, Freelance contributor
Ed is a technology journalist, music nut, and gadget geek who hails from the somewhat small town of Reading, Pennsylvania.