Ambrogio Robot at iLandscape Green Industry Trade Show, Illinois/Wisconsin - Report
The iLandscape show went really well! Paradise Robotics hosted a booth and I gave a presentation in an education session. Three local dealers pitched-in some time at the booth too. The show ran for three days, from Wednesday, January 28 to Friday, January 31.
Myself and my co-speaker Kate Mack of Mackland LLC kicked it off with our presentation: "Landscape Design for Robot Mowers: Design for People, Accommodate Robots" bright and early on Wednesday at 8am. The presentation was very well attended by something like 70-100 people.
My talk covered all robot mowers, not just Ambrogio. I talked about the market in Europe - that there are now more robot lawn mowers sold than regular lawn mowers. I discussed how robot mowers work, easy ways to measure the grassy area, perimeter wire length and slopes, and, the all important "do's and don'ts". I mentioned three mowing methods, manual, fully automatic and hybrid. I also covered how to deal with narrow passages, and, which brands navigate narrow strips well vs. those that may not. And, I showed landscape architects how they might edit a plan that includes a robot mower for a property with a bridge and a stream.
Then Kate spoke from her personal experience evaluating an Ambrogio robot that was purchased by Mackland under the LawnBottLawnBott® brand name, and from a landscape architect's perspective, since she is a Certified Landscape Architect. She talked about her robot, a four year-old L300 Elite that keeps 3/4 acre mowed always. Due to her "Houdini" dog, she chose to mow the front yard manually, by placing the robot in the front and letting it go. Kate explained how they installed the wire so that the robot drove with one wheel in the mulch and one wheel in the grass to trim the edges, eliminating the need to use a weed wacker for that purpose. Kate discussed the need to obey the "gentle curves" rule, she showed many ways to hide the recharging base, including some very creative ways, like this robot mower bunker designed by Jonathan Hall of MowerMagic.
The show opened at 9am and ran for three days. Our booth was in the "Innovation Hall". Although it is not the most highly-traffic'd location, traffic was sufficient for reaching key people in the landscaping/equipment industries.
I chose not to have the robot running at the booth since there are so many YouTube videos available now; it may have helped catch a few more eyes if I had done that. But not having it running enabled more space for people to come in and see the robot up close.
My pitch included turning the robot on its side to show off the blade that has four sharp edges; the blade can be flipped mid-season and sharpened over the winter. I also demonstrated the tilt of the jointed 4.0 robot on display. These are just two of Ambrogio's key differentiators. Two more that I talked about include its very long run times, typically 2.5-7 hours (model dependent) and that Ambrogio robots charge slowly on purpose: 1) to help extend the battery life time and 2) for the longest possible robot-free yard times (allowing homeowners more contiguous hours to use their yard robot-free).
I also talked about how GPS is used to mow more efficiently, in addition to using it for theft-recovery. First and foremost, though, I explained that the grass looks as good as the green artificial turf the robot was sitting on, and, that the photo on our banner is not photo shopped - the grass really looks like that every day. Having an "always mowed" lawn is one of the key robot mower benefits, among many others.
Our local dealers spent time assisting at our booth as well: 65 year-old brick and mortar store: Gruel Brothers of Crown Point IN, that is now including Ambrogio in their showroom, robot mowing service start-up company Eco Lawnbots, and Halloran Power Equipment of Palatine, IL.
Representatives from some very large companies came by the booth, including national landscaping company Brightview Landscape Services and Marianis Landscaping. Even representatives from competitor companies came by to have a look. A few brick and mortar store owners also came by and are considering having Ambrogio in their stores.
Overall, the iLandscape show was a success for us. We will be there again next year.
Myself and my co-speaker Kate Mack of Mackland LLC kicked it off with our presentation: "Landscape Design for Robot Mowers: Design for People, Accommodate Robots" bright and early on Wednesday at 8am. The presentation was very well attended by something like 70-100 people.
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| Landscape Design for Robot Mowing Presentation: Design for People, Accommodate Robots by Kathy Moseler and Kate Mack |
My talk covered all robot mowers, not just Ambrogio. I talked about the market in Europe - that there are now more robot lawn mowers sold than regular lawn mowers. I discussed how robot mowers work, easy ways to measure the grassy area, perimeter wire length and slopes, and, the all important "do's and don'ts". I mentioned three mowing methods, manual, fully automatic and hybrid. I also covered how to deal with narrow passages, and, which brands navigate narrow strips well vs. those that may not. And, I showed landscape architects how they might edit a plan that includes a robot mower for a property with a bridge and a stream.
Then Kate spoke from her personal experience evaluating an Ambrogio robot that was purchased by Mackland under the LawnBottLawnBott® brand name, and from a landscape architect's perspective, since she is a Certified Landscape Architect. She talked about her robot, a four year-old L300 Elite that keeps 3/4 acre mowed always. Due to her "Houdini" dog, she chose to mow the front yard manually, by placing the robot in the front and letting it go. Kate explained how they installed the wire so that the robot drove with one wheel in the mulch and one wheel in the grass to trim the edges, eliminating the need to use a weed wacker for that purpose. Kate discussed the need to obey the "gentle curves" rule, she showed many ways to hide the recharging base, including some very creative ways, like this robot mower bunker designed by Jonathan Hall of MowerMagic.
The show opened at 9am and ran for three days. Our booth was in the "Innovation Hall". Although it is not the most highly-traffic'd location, traffic was sufficient for reaching key people in the landscaping/equipment industries.
I chose not to have the robot running at the booth since there are so many YouTube videos available now; it may have helped catch a few more eyes if I had done that. But not having it running enabled more space for people to come in and see the robot up close.
My pitch included turning the robot on its side to show off the blade that has four sharp edges; the blade can be flipped mid-season and sharpened over the winter. I also demonstrated the tilt of the jointed 4.0 robot on display. These are just two of Ambrogio's key differentiators. Two more that I talked about include its very long run times, typically 2.5-7 hours (model dependent) and that Ambrogio robots charge slowly on purpose: 1) to help extend the battery life time and 2) for the longest possible robot-free yard times (allowing homeowners more contiguous hours to use their yard robot-free).
I also talked about how GPS is used to mow more efficiently, in addition to using it for theft-recovery. First and foremost, though, I explained that the grass looks as good as the green artificial turf the robot was sitting on, and, that the photo on our banner is not photo shopped - the grass really looks like that every day. Having an "always mowed" lawn is one of the key robot mower benefits, among many others.
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| Paradise Robotics Booth at iLandscape 2020 |
Representatives from some very large companies came by the booth, including national landscaping company Brightview Landscape Services and Marianis Landscaping. Even representatives from competitor companies came by to have a look. A few brick and mortar store owners also came by and are considering having Ambrogio in their stores.
Overall, the iLandscape show was a success for us. We will be there again next year.
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