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Today, robots are used in a variety of household chores.  You’ve seen robotic vacuums, pool cleaners, and home systems that aid in necessary but routine tasks.  These technologies, once innovative, are becoming standard due to the ease and extra time they provide to the user.  Likewise, robotic lawn mowers bring household robotic aids to the outdoors.

Not only do they ease the life of the lawn-owner by mowing the lawn unsupervised and in the directed-areas, robotic mowers are chargeable, rather than gas-powered, contributing to zero carbon movements.  Operation is controlled via the user’s app which tells the machine to mow in certain areas and not in others.  To operate on its own, these mowers include many sensors for rain, lift, tilt, handle, and bumper.  This means that the mower will mow exactly where you want, when you want, and will return to charge itself when finished.

Mowing lawns is a beautification practice for neatening the land we come in contact with daily.  Consistent mowing of the grass, however, actually removes nutrients from the soil and lessens the health of the root system.  Most robotic mowers return grass clippings back to the soil while mowing at the preferred height for the type of grass, allowing the nutrients to return and the root system to grow.  The zero waste and zero gas production, in addition to its safety precautions, make a robotic mower a greener solution to an unkempt yard than a standard lawn mower.

An obvious question for these unmanned bladed machines is safety.  For grass space on The Ray, maintaining lawns in and around the highway is a dangerous task that requires putting human workers in harm’s way.  Nationally, many people are injured, and lives are lost every year from mower-related incidents.  By taking people off the road and away from the mower’s blades, we remove a serious safety hazard, making our roadways safer.  They are also programmed with anti-collision software (similar to those found in modern cars to prevent crashes) which alerts the blades that automatically turn off when flipped or held.

Concurrently, companies like Greenzie take advantage of already-existent and operative fleets, updating each mower to be robotic and self-driving.  Their retrofit kits are added to existing commercial mowers, whether electric or gas-powered, turning them into autonomous machines.  After you map the outer-boundary of the lawn, the fitted-mower will stripe it for you.  Amidst the transition to autonomous vehicles, Greenzie’s kit is cheaper and reduces the waste of usable mowers.

With this industry booming and growing, models are consistently updated to be safer and more efficient.  Transitioning simple household or commercial machines to better serve our environment and atmosphere is another way we can further The Ray’s zero carbon, zero waste, and zero death goals.  Changes to our household and commercial rituals may give us more time and energy in seeking out other ways to continue to modernize our highway for a more sustainable world.  Are you interested in a roomba-like lawn mower?  Would these benefit commercial spaces like the 18 miles on The Ray?  Share this post on social media, and let us know!