Last year I attended the GroundsFest show and had the opportunity to see several products being demonstrated.
One that caught my eye, was the Segway Navimow - one of plethora of robotic mowers that are now being showcased for the UK market.
Many of the earlier robotic mowers relied on a permitter wire to enable it to work and mow a given area, however, with the constant improvements to robot technology, we now have an array of fully automated GPS/ RTK and locating systems employed within these new generation of robot mowers. They also feature many safety features and the cutting performance of these robots is improving all the time.
The Segway website draws attention to the fact that their robots do not require a perimeter wire, featuring app control, centimetre-precise positioning via the manufacturer’s Exact Fusion Locating System (EFLS) and systematic mowing path, engineered to deliver, as they put it, “perfectly manicured lawns.”
So, having seen the demo at the show I was keen to see if I could get my hands on one and try it out. After few exchanges of emails, I managed to acquire one of the i series 105E robotic mowers and a promise of a X series when they came out in the new year from Barrus who sell the Segway robots via their dealer networks.
Barrus arranged for a demonstration of the 105E to be delivered in the first week of March in time for the start of the growing season.
I enlisted the help of my son-in-law Kyle to help me set up the mower. Having recently fitted an outside power point at the back of the garage we used this to power the charging station. Basically, the setting up of the robot mower was straightforward. It was a case of erecting the antenna, connecting it to the base station along with the power supply, placing the robot on the base station and turning it on.
We then needed to download the Navimow App, register the product and then pair the app with the robot mower. Once completed you are sent a few instructions to guide you setting up the robot.
It is then a case of using the phone to control the robot and drive it around the perimeter of the lawn, which sets the boundary of the work area to be mown. Once mapped and saved it we could set the height of cut between 30mm - 60mm, using the dial on the top of the mower. Start can then be pressed and the mower will commence cutting the lawn.
The Navimow mows systematically, recharges and continues mowing until the job is done. The mower was set to cut in straight lines; my daughters’ lawn also posed a few challenges in terms of obstacles such as roaming chickens and dogs! The robot can be scheduled to mow at set times and days. It was certainly put through its paces having to cope with clumps of uncut grass, bare ground and my two year old granddaughter, as well as the pets and chickens. However, the robot would stop when faced with a hazard, change direction and continue to mow.
I would say it certainly coped well with its new environment. I left it to mow and was able to keep an eye on its progress via the phone app.
For my next trial I took the Navimow to my brother-in-law’s house. As Phil has got a small lawn and is disabled, he was looking forward to trailing the robot. He finds it difficult to mow his small lawn in his wheelchair. Being a techy, he was keen to see how easy it was to set up and use.
Again, it was a case of connecting to electric power point, downloading the app, setting up the base station and using his mobile phone to drive the robot around the perimeter of his lawn - all done within twenty minutes.
We set the grass height to 35mm and scheduled the robot to cut once at 10.30am every day of the week.
Being a small lawn, it soon achieved a single complete cut in less than 30 minutes and found its way back to the base station. The robot has continued to mow the lawn daily and has been a godsend for Phil. It has taken away the worry of having to try to mow his lawn.
Phil has been so impressed with the Segway Navimow, he is now looking at acquiring one.
All in all, I’d say the Segway Navimow i series 105E has delivered on all its selling points. It’s easy to set up; it’s quiet; changing the blades is simple; it has many safety features; it’s waterproof, easy to clean and can cope with slopes up to 30%.
The robot handled some difficult terrain on Kyle’s lawn and coped well with the chickens and dogs that were quite inquisitive. It made light work of cutting the grass and soon covered the ground very efficiently.
Both Phil and Kyle were impressed with the performance.
