Toro announced the introduction of a robotic lawn mower for the residential market that will greatly reduce the time and sweat homeowners spend cutting grass.
Toro has some autonomous lawn mowers for golf courses and commercial markets under development but is introducing its first robotic mower for residential use.
To compete against robotic residential lawn mowers already on the market. Toro says its autonomous mower is the first to use optical sensors. Some of the existing robot mowers on the market use GPS navigation or require a guide wire to be buried around the perimeter of the yard or obstacles that the mower uses for navigation.
"There's a lot of different teams across Toro that come together to build this type of product," said Greg Janey, vice president of the residential and landscape contractor business at Toro and head of its Center for Technology, Research and Innovation, which developed the new mower.
"Ultimately this is really the foundation for us to build as we go into the future around different types of technologies around battery, smart-connected and autonomous technologies," he said. "This one specifically is really the start of a smart yard."
For many homeowners, lawn mowing is a weekly or biweekly chore. But the robotic lawn mower can be programmed to run more often, leaving grass a bit taller, which can create a healthier lawn by avoiding the stress of cutting too much grass at once.
Plus, it will look better aesthetically, Janey said.
"When you think about an always-ready lawn, it's really about that freshly cut, great look every single day," Janey said.
