Toadi Robot Mower Is Part Of A Master Plan For Worker Robots
by Jeff Kart
Need some help around the yard? You might want to check out Toadi, a lawn robot powered by artificial intelligence. The bots have been mulching grass in Europe for a couple of years and will soon be launched in the United States, says CEO Wesley Lorrez in Belgium.
The autonomous landscaping robot works by integrating a camera with AI to recognize and avoid objects in front of it, such as trees, animals and people, according to a post at StartupBeat. Lorrez compares the technology behind Toadi to the Tesla electric vehicle.
“It's the world's first lawn robot that doesn't need a manual,” the CEO says. “Not only that, our Toadi doesn't have any button, no keypad, no nothing. Because you don't need it.”
Fully Automatic
Setting up the device is barely a process: You unbox Toadi, place the charger where you want, then walk around your yard while Toadi follows you, Lorrez explains. Once you’ve shown the device your property, she develops a detailed 3D map and the rest is fully automatic.
“She will then automatically start to mow and use AI and the map to navigate in your yard,” Lorrez says. “She also calculates how large the area is and makes a mowing schedule based on the complexity and size of your yard.
“She never mows on Sunday, that's a day off for her as well.”
Lorrez started the company in 2017 and sold a first test batch of 150 bots in 2018. He says about 1,050 Toadis are out in the wild now; they’re sold in Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands and France. In the last couple of months, the company has sold 1,200 reservation tickets for a U.S. launch via Kickstarter at the end of June.
Toadi plans to have its first U.S. production center up and running by October, to begin deliveries in November, pending any delays from the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are two models, the Toadi and Toadi Pro, available in gold, silver and white.
Toadi can maintain up to 0.6 acres and will sell online for $2,760 in the U.S. (with discounted price of $2,260 via Kickstarter).
Toadi Pro maintains up to 1.2 acres and will sell online for $3,390 (and $2,890 via Kickstarter).
Both models include three years worth of titanium-coated blades. Other features of the bot include security elements such as night vision, to alert you to strangers in your yard via a smartphone app.
The Master Plan
Poke around the Toadi website and you’ll find a Master Plan. In summary, the idea is to:
- Disrupt the lawn-robot market with the first model and generate cashflow.
- Use the profit and technology to build a first Personal Worker Robot.
- Use the profit to build Personal Worker Robots for all the tasks needed to create a sustainable, healthy, fair and pleasant world for everyone.
Lorrez says the company, including co-founder Mike Slembrouck, sees many opportunities for worker robots to help expedite the transition to a sustainable world.
“However, to build a worker robot it requires a huge investment,” Lorrez adds. “And since we are a young startup with limited resources we thought of a strategy to build that worker robot with the means we have.”
He says the U.S. Toadi launch will allow the company to generate income “while we keep on developing our first worker robot model.”
Mowing Details
Customers in Europe have reportedly fallen in love with what Lorrez calls “the Toadi magic,” aka freeing up time that people used to spend mowing their lawns.
The Toadi can mow up to nine hours per day on a single charge (or about three times that of other lawn robots); the size of the area depends on the complexity of the yard.
“We made Toadi in a way so that she can maintain lawn areas (complex yards) up to 1.2 acres,” according to Lorrez. “'Maintain' means that Toadi keeps the grass continuously short.”
Another important feature: Toadi doesn’t mow over dog poop like other robots.
And just as with cars like the Tesla, switching from gasoline to electric-powered landscape equipment will reduce harmful emissions, the CEO notes.
Gas-powered landscape maintenance equipment accounts for 43% of volatile organic compounds and about 50% of fine particulate matter of all nonroad gasoline emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Toadis sold in the U.S. will be produced in the U.S., just as has been done in other countries where the bots are sold.
“We use additive manufacturing (3D printing) to print almost all the parts of our Toadi,” according to Lorrez. “This allows us to use sustainable raw materials: 81% of our robot is made out of corn based plastic, the rest are electronics (processing, batteries and motors) and bolts and nuts.”