Robotic mowers work relying on a perimeter wire or boundary wire to navigate, to put it simply, like a very large antenna.
If you want to get the best out of your mower, it’s important to install this wire correctly, and it can be a time-consuming and difficult job.
If you’d rather not have to deal with being tangled in meters and meters of high specification wire, you’re probably asking yourself if there are robotic lawnmowers that do not require perimeter wire.
While it is common to find robotic mowers that rely on perimeter wire, there are a handful of models that offer wire-free alternatives.
In this article we will examine the reasons that wires are typically used for mower navigation and also some other technologies for navigation that are being introduced as alternatives.
Perimeter wire is the mainstream method of navigation for robotic mowers
Perimeter wire has proven to be a dependable and strong navigational system for robotic mowers and can be repeated over any lawn size and shape.
It is also
very cost-effective, which means more families can afford these robotic mowers.
This wire includes a center that is conductive copper, which is wired back into the charging station for the robotic mower. When activated, the charging station creates and sends a unique signal around the length of the boundary wire.
The signal pervades the wire in a way that lets the robotic mower know where the boundary is, and then there it will use that signal as it mows to navigate.
In fact, very little can disrupt this system aside from a disconnection of the wire or a physical break in it.
Installing perimeter wire can be tricky
Nonetheless, the wire needs to be properly installed and stay in place, or your mower cannot function correctly, particularly on the boundaries of the lawn.
Installation errors often occur with perimeter wire and can result in the mower not functioning or failing to mow properly in areas, such as edges and narrow passages.
If a racoon, rabbit, or deer takes a liking to your wire and bites through it, the entire perimeter will fail and have to be installed again…
It’s easy to see why folks are looking for an alternative to perimeter wire
Nevertheless, it is difficult to avoid, since all leading manufacturers of robotic mowers are deploying this technology.
The reliability of this technology means that alternatives to perimeter wire must compete with the precision and navigation ease, and these technologies are not common in the market as yet.
Here are some of the alternatives that are currently being developed.
These other navigation technologies for robotic mowers are not commonly used yet, but they have the potential to outperform perimeter wire because they are easier to install. Here are some navigation technologies to keep an eye on:
Global Positioning System (GPS)
Brands such as Husqvarna or Robomow offer higher-end robotic mowers that can be used for guided navigation with GPS technology.
These robotic mowers do not work entirely on satellite navigation, as they still rely on the traditional boundary wire that other robotic mowers use.
The GPS navigational technology is meant to supplement the mower’s cutting accuracy by improving its speed and overall efficiency.
Manufacturers also utilize GPS technology to enable the tracking of robotic mowers, allowing the owner to locate them should they get stolen.
However, robotic mowers can not solely rely on GPS technology because the satellite navigational systems are not accurate enough; GPS technology does not resolve your position more accurately than a few meters, which is not precise enough to maintain a lush lawn.
Furthermore, using GPS technology consumes a significant amount of energy, as the mower has to continually amplify the weak satellite signals, so there is still plenty of work to be done before this can even be thought of as a substitute for perimeter wire.
Beacons
Due to the compromised accuracy of GPS, some robotic lawnmower manufactures are developing a system of land based radio frequency beacons that can assist a mower in navigating more accurately through GPS.
Location beacons can be quickly and easily staked into the ground at strategic locations to create a virtual boundary that a mower can use in conjunction with GPS.
This type of assisted GPS, called aGPS, can improve the accuracy of GPS found in enclosed spaces such as a garden. The beacons provide a correction signal to the GPS position report so the mower can recognize its boundaries.
Sensors
Senors are already utilized to accomplish several functions in a robotic mower – such as obstacle detection and rain.
Zucchetti Centro Sistemi SpA, developers of a robotic lawnmower that works without a perimeter wire, has gotten this in motion to use sensors to help a robot mow efficiently wire-free.
Robot technologies based on sensors use factors like humidity to tell the difference between grass and hard surfaces.
The sensors tell the mower to mow in a different direction. Even though that’s a basic level of technology, sensor based mowing is shown to work for most lawns.
The only downside to using humidity, is if it holds water, this could be near ponds, or in any cold rainy weather.
Camera-based navigation
Visual navigation is an emerging technology in robotics, and represents the ability of a robotic mower to ‘see’ your grass and other features so that it can navigate it perfectly, while doing a better job of mowing the lawn.
Mowers that can see will have many applications, including alerting the owner about lawn health issues.
Visual navigation mowers will be able to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to teach itself how to identify obstacles present in your lawn.
Mowers that will use visual navigation will use a camera onboard and very complex software to conduct their business, and of course, this technology is tremendously expensive and is very similar to the technology of self-driving cars.
While prototypes are very promising right now, it may be many years before such a product will be available.
Here are some examples of robotic mowers that do not use a perimeter wire
While most of these mowers are currently prototypes and not available yet, they provide some insight into the direction of robotic mowing technology.
Here is a little overview of these wire-free perimeter bots that soon will be mowing gardens throughout the country:
1.The TOADI
This small 3D printed robotic mower is in development and is currently under wraps. What we know for sure, however, is that it does not work with a boundary wire and instead uses a 4K camera and artificial intelligence.
We learned that prototypes have either gone into ponds or tried to mow driveways so they have work to do.
2. GPS-RTK by Belrobotics
A top robotics company in Europe has designed a professional landscaped robotic mower that does not require the use of perimeter wire.
It uses a type of assisted GPS called real-time kinematic GPS which has much higher accuracy than standard satellite-based guidance systems.
Current Best Models on Amazon
Rounding up
Searching for a robot lawnmower that doesn’t require perimeter wire is like looking into the future of robot mowers.
Being wire-free would allow for an incredible amount of super-convenient operation while avoiding the hassle and costs of replacing broken perimeter wires.
A robot mower without perimeter wire would be a significant step towards becoming totally autonomous.
As it stands, the boundary wire isn’t going anywhere and performs well across a wide range and variety of robotic mowers.
To save yourself the hassle of laying your perimeter wire, you should have your robotic mower professionally installed that includes exact perimeter wire installation with your robotic mower.