Robot Mowing Summer 2020 Update and Future Vision

Whew! I feel like I just ran a marathon, except I have been running it every day for the past six months. Anyone subscribed to my blog must be wondering why there is a huge gap between this post and my last post. Growth of Paradise Robotics: something had to give. 

You would think it would be easier to write my blog due to the Coronavirus pandemic's impact on the economy. Actually, our sales went up. We have a fairly large established base of customers. With everyone at home, we had quite a few people resurrecting their old LawnBott® mowers (LawnBott® was the brand name for Ambrogio robot mowers from 2006-2016).  And, we gained many new customers and key dealers, too. The annual "summer slump" hit later than usual - this is the time when the phone stops ringing because people are on vacations and/or getting kids ready to go back to school. The delay in the slump was certainly impacted by the pandemic because people spent money on home projects rather than on vacations. I expect our fall "uptick" will begin soon.

Meanwhile, the slump gave me opportunities to directly assist customers whose dealers are still coming up the learning curve. Hands-on work is invaluable for gaining knowledge that helps me support dealers and customers better.

I say over and over that robot mowers really don't work in loose dirt or mud. You might see it get through the loose dirt just fine and be tempted to leave it as is, but, when it rains, that dirt becomes mud. The mud cakes onto the wheels, reducing traction. It can build-up between the wheels and the chassis, which eventually causes a breakdown.

Planting grass in bare spots is cost effective, but it takes 3-6 weeks to get established. Sod is a perfect solution, as long as it is level with the existing grass. Non-established sod patches that are on the robot's travel path back to the base will stay in place except when the robot makes a sharp turn. Those patches need to be held down with stakes. Anyway, sod is a great idea, but due to the pandemic, sod suppliers have been out of stock.

A long-time customer was having a docking problem. The issue was caused by loose dirt around the base, and, the "enemy of robot mowers" - plastic landscape edging. The edging was on the travel path back to the base in a very narrow passage with a bed, a one foot strip of grass and a sidewalk on the other side. I forgot to take pictures, here is a drawing of what it looked like:

A graphic drawing illustrating problems robot mowers have due to common landscape materials and a new sidewalk

The loose dirt in front of the base did not provide enough traction for the robot's rear drive wheel. The robot would make multiple docking attempts, overly trampling the grass, creating ruts in the narrow passage leading up to the base, and, running the battery very low due to its inability to dock.

The solutions were: 1) Cut away the plastic landscape edging in the travel path 2) lay a strip of artificial turf instead of the one foot wide strip of grass and 3) add a rubber mat in front of the base.

The sidewalk was new - it was also necessary to back-fill with topsoil to ensure the sidewalk was level with the grass. I changed the robot's travel path so it would drive on the other side while the grass next to the sidewalk was getting established. Here is a drawing showing the improvements:

Graphic illustration of robot mower narrow travel passage landscape improvements

Other good things that happened over the summer: my book that is for sale on Amazon, "Ambrogio Robot Mower Professional Installation Guide", 3rd edition, finally has the "Look Inside" feature activated! I had been checking periodically, googling, etc. and finally I ran across a post that pointed me to the right customer service team who was capable of fixing it, which I am sure will translate to more book sales. Check it out.

Cover of Kathy Moseler's 3rd edition of the installation guide for Ambrogio Robot Mowers

And, I am excited to announce I will be a guest on an upcoming episode of Joe and Julia Langton's podcast Automating Success. Joe Langton is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Automated Outdoor Solutions, who will unite the landscape industry around automation of outdoor tasks. 


Automation is often seen as a threat to jobs. Yes, it is. It is a threat to jobs as we know them, but automation will actually create more jobs in the end. Think of the secretaries who lost their jobs when computers hit the scene - computers created far more jobs.

The same thing will happen with automation of outdoor tasks. Jobs we cannot even imagine yet will be created.I foresee many education jobs being created to train the people who will  install and maintain all of the automation equipment. We need an army of installers to install, set-up and maintain robot mower perimeter wire. We need many "special forces technician teams" who will go on site and solve issues. We need loads of people to take support calls. An increase of jobs overall is practically guaranteed.

Joe's vision is to increase landscape industry revenue while simultaneously improving the quality of services provided. Joe is a charismatic visionary on his way to becoming a mogul of automated outdoor maintenance services. Julia Langton, his daughter and heir to the family conglomerate, will undoubtedly carry Joe's vision into the stratosphere. At 19 years old, she has already proven her ability to move Joe's vision forward. Their target audience is lawn maintenance/snow removal professionals who are trying to navigate how to survive ongoing labor cost increases, labor pool size reduction and constantly shrinking revenues for landscape/lawn maintenance services. Joe and Julia are interviewing successful entrepreneurs everyone can learn from. Tune-in now. 



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